The new pornographers: part 2

A married father of two, an engineer living in Germany and a handful of college and graduate students in such places as Colorado, Ontario and Mexico. What do they have in common? They all strip nude for strangers online.

In my last column, I attempted to normalize print and video pornography and suggest it could actually be an area of academic research. This week, I seek to explore what motivates some men to participate in online “adult” broadcasts. In quasi-scientific style, I surveyed 16 such individuals who engage in this activity and whose names have been changed to protect anonymity. They ranged in age from 18 (yes, 18, with government-issued ID as proof) to 34, lived as far away as Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi and as close as Durham and were a mix of races, sexual orientations and educational levels. My thesis was that money makes the world go ‘round, and the pursuit of greenbacks is the primary reason these men had shown themselves off. As it turns out, about 81 percent (13 out of 16) reported instead they were doing it for fun. Four of these 13 (25 percent of the whole sample) also noted that a desire to make money led them to broadcast. Permitted to select as many other applicable reasons as they wished, half of the respondents admitted it turned them on, about 37 percent (six out of 16) said they did it because they were bored and 25 percent used it to meet like-minded individuals. “Jimmy,” a 27-year-old respondent who is currently unemployed, wrote that he loved exposure and hoped his broadcasts would allow him to become a porn star, and, though it wasn’t necessarily a reason at the start, “Ozzy,” a 26-year-old healthcare administrator, added that he “[planned] to expand into adult films soon.” On the other hand, “Neil,” a 21-year-old undergraduate from India who is studying in the United States, responded only that he thought participating in amateur webcam pornography was “a way to get out of [his seasonal affective disorder and major depressive episode] and to make [himself] feel better.” About 69 percent (11 out of 16) of these guys found the hosting websites—places like Cam4 and Chaturbate—on their own, though a few heard about the sites from their friends.

One of the major differences between a strip club and an online broadcast is the perpetuation of the images. In a club, the number of viewers is known, and photography—at least in the United States—is strictly prohibited. Online, anonymous users could be across the country or across the street, and certain computer programs can copy video streams—a nouveau form of piracy forbidden by the hosting sites. (That said, the anonymity of it all gave some heterosexual broadcasters some comfort in catering to mostly male audiences; performing live in front of other men, as in a strip club, might have been much more uncomfortable.) To this end, about one-third of those surveyed worried about their safety or privacy. Specific concerns included: that their photos or videos ending up on the internet (four out of 16), that their parents or, separately, friends would find out (four and five out of 16, respectively), that someone would try to blackmail them (five out of 16) or that they would be stalked (two out of 16). Indeed, “Rodrigo,” a 34-year-old computer programmer in Colombia, noted that some of these things had happened to one of his friends. “Diego,” a 25-year-old man in Brazil, reported he’s been recognized from his broadcasts at parties. “Jimmy” reported one of his own friends caught him (after which he just changed his profile name and resumed broadcasting). “William,” a 28-year-old Latino graduate student, worried that his participation in online pornography would “come up at an inconvenient time and affect [his] career.” “Bentley,” a 22-year-old Indian student in Sweden, has seen his photos and videos pop up elsewhere on the internet, but generally hasn’t minded unless the poster has passed them off as his own. Interestingly, an equal number of respondents (five out of 16) specifically said they had no regrets, and “Javier,” a graduate student at Duke, said he avoided mixing the online world with the offline by never showing his face. He was in the minority, though, as at least 13 respondents exposed themselves from soup to, well, nuts.

The impacts have not been all bad, however. About 63 percent (10 out of 16) reported making friends while chatting with others during their webcam shows. Some respondents reported feeling more confident or sexually liberated from their shows (four and five out of 16, respectively). Ozzy, William, Bentley and “Anthony,” a 19-year-old trailer unloader in Maryland, reported making money from their amateur webcam pornography, ranging from $50 to nearly $2400 total, excluding additional gifts from their Amazon wishlists. (“People like to buy me underwear,” Anthony joked.)