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Phone sex is a type of virtual sex that refers to sexually explicit conversation between two or more persons via telephone, especially when at least one of the participants masturbates or engages in sexual fantasy. Phone sex conversation may take many forms, including (but not limited to): guided, sexual sounds, narrated, and enacted suggestions; sexual anecdotes and confessions; candid expression of sexual feelings or love and or discussion of very personal and sensitive sexual topics.

Phone sex exists both in the context of intimate relationships (e.g., among distanced lovers), and as a commercial transaction between a paying customer and a paid professional.

Workers

A phone sex worker is a type of sex worker and pornographic actor, sometimes referred to as "phone actor," "fantasy artist," "adult phone entertainer," "audio erotic performer," or any one of other monikers. The most valued attributes of a phone sex professional are his or her voice, acting and/or sexual roleplay skills, along with the experienced ability to discern and respond appropriately to a broad spectrum of customer requests.

What phone sex workers often do involve taboo topics that paying customers cannot engage in during real life sexual encounters due to moral and legal ramifications, psychological inhibition, lack of physical ability, unwillingness of a committed partner or the fear of social stigma. Phone sex operators or companies may, by policy or discretion, refuse to entertain certain requests. Many other services accommodate the extreme taboo market by using signifying phrases in their advertising such as “no taboos” or “no restrictions.”

Phone sex services primarily market to men or women of a particular sexual orientation, and focus on mainstream sexual experiences. Specialized companies also cater to clients who have a certain sexual predilection (e.g., zoophilia, coprophilia, domination/submission, humiliation) or an erotic interest in a specific group (nurses, doctors, firemen, college students, older/younger figures, ethnic minorities, etc.) It is not at all unusual for a phone sex service to employ a staff of phone sex performers to meet both mainstream and exotic customer requests.

As a business

Most of the best phone sex services are a managed network of dispatchers (live or automated) and erotic performers who process payment information, verify the legal age of their clients, and perform calls in their own homes on their own telephone lines. Many phone sex operators use service bureaus and phone sex directories to advertise their services. Another type of service is the live callback, where the customer contacts a receptionist who tries to find a suitable woman to call him/her back.

The vast majority of modern services use toll-free numbers whereby clients can dial up to request a call with a particular performer using credit cards, Automated Clearing House systems, and a variety of other billing methods. There are still some services that rely upon premium-rate telephone numbers (e.g. 976 and 900 numbers) for billing purposes, although this practice has been largely abandoned due to the high rate of fraud associated with these lines and the inability to dial 900 and 976 lines from cellular phones. As a direct result, most telephone companies allow their customers to block outgoing calls to premium-rate telephone numbers. In 1996, the FCC changed regulations on 900 numbers to address abuse of these services by minors and fraud concerns.

There is independent phone sex operators who engage in self-promotion. This self-promotion can involve a personalized website where the phone sex performer lists their specialties and services, various methods of advertising (via the traditional methods listed below, or on organized third-party network sites that provide a basic level of privacy for performer and client alike) and/or surfing of sexually themed chat rooms for interested clients.

Phone sex service providers typically advertise their services in men's magazines, in pornographic magazines and videos, on late-night cable television, and online. Some phone sex services use state-of-the-art customer acquisition techniques such as active database marketing to reach potential clients. These advertising methods almost invariably target men, the primary consumers of phone sex services.

Online companies

Several online companies provide Internet-based phone sex lines. These services enable callers to post profiles of themselves and then engage in VOIP-based and other types of online sex.

By the end of the 1980s, nearly all of the major local phone companies, plus the major long distance carriers were actively involved in the adult chat line business. The telephone companies would provide billing services for chat line companies. Typically the telephone companies would bill callers to chat lines and then remit 45% of the money collected to chat line operators. The telephone companies placed the chat line charges on a customers local phone bill. If a customer disputed a charge, the telephone company would usually “forgive” the charge but block the caller from calling any other chat lines.

By 2007 only Verizon, Sprint and AT&T remained in the chat line business. By 2007 Verizon and MCI had merged Verizon MCI Merger. Verizon provided billing services to calls made in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine. AT&T and MCI offered nationwide collection services, with a cap of $50 per call.

By 2007, only a few chat line companies remained active.

The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington estimates that phone sex earns telephone companies close to $500 million per year.

As a type of virtual sex

Phone sex does not involve physical contact between those participating in it. Couples may choose to engage in phone sex when the inconvenience of distance makes physical intimacy inopportune.

Due to the potential for emotional intimacy between those who have engaged in phone sex, it is a matter of some debate whether phone sex is to be considered infidelity when involving a person outside of a committed personal relationship. Nevertheless, phone sex should not be confused with prostitution wherein money is exchanged for real life sexual services or physical interactions.

In popular culture

Music

• "Sex Over the Phone" by Village People has phone sex as a main theme.
• Another song named "Sex on the Phone", by the eurodance group E-Rotic, has phone sex as its primary topic.
• The song "Phonography", a bonus track on the Britney Spears album Circus uses phone sex as the main theme.
• Singer/comedienne Sandra Bernhard has a song called "Phone Sex" on her album Excuses for Bad Behavior.
• The song "Baby Hello" on the album Peep Show by Goudie is about a phone sex encounter.
• The song "Wow, I can Get Sexual Too" by Say Anything mentions phone sex.
• The song "Sometimes a Fantasy" by Billy Joel is written about phone sex.
• The song "On the Hotline" by Pretty Ricky, as the title suggests, is about an explicit telephone conversation.
• The song "Telephone X" by Texas from their 2003 album Careful What You Wish For has phone sex as its main theme.
• The song "The Party Song" by "Blink-182" from "Enema of the State" says "where i'd put on some porn or have sex on the phone

Film

• In the film The Truth About Cats and Dogs, insecure radio veterinarian Abby (Janeane Garofalo), who's convinced her statuesque new friend, model Noel (Uma Thurman), to impersonate her as she pursues photographer Brian (Ben Chaplin), has phone sex with Brian after Noel as Abby gives him her telephone number.
• In the film American Pie 2 there is a scene of phone sex, interrupted by the voice of Stifler, who was listening.
• In the film Valentine's Day Liz is seen having phone sex with people with different voices.
• In the film Get Carter Carter engages in phone sex with his mistress, played by Britt Ekland.
• In the film Toy Soldiers Billy Tepper, played by Sean Astin, re-routes a phone line at his boarding school so that he and his friends can engage in late-night phone sex, for free, without the dean finding out (which he does, anyway).
• In the film Punch-Drunk Love, Barry Egan is extorted for money by a phone sex operator and her henchmen.
• In the film Going the Distance, Garret traveled away from Erin, but they wanted to keep their relationship together, so they tried phone sex as an alternate.
• The film Girl 6, directed by Spike Lee, is all about a phone sex operator.
• The film For A Good Time, Call... has the two main actresses starting a phone sex business.

Television

• In the TV series Sex and the City, one of the main characters, Miranda, has phone sex with a man who, to her surprise, also engages in phone sex with other people while putting her phone call on hold.
• On The Graham Norton Show, a chat show shown in the United Kingdom, comedian Russell Brand was given the task of phoning a sex service in front of a studio audience.
• Aired on SexTV: The Channel, the documentary Sweet Talk features three North American phone sex workers.

See also

• Televised sex line
• Obscene phone call
• Mobile porn
• Cyber sex
• sexting
• Work-at-home scheme

References

1. Red Lights, Big Names, CIO, June 15, 2007

External links

• FTC 900-Number Rules - The Federal Trade Commission's comments on the FCC's "rules designed to curb abusive practices in the pay-per-call industry"
• Phone Sex as a Career, Esquire

• Sexual acts
• Pornography
• Information by telephone
• Masturbation