Adult Entertainment Industry Seeks To Provide Through FaceTime Video Sessions

The porn industry is now hiring girls to have live sex chats with Apple iPhone 4 owners using the infamous video-call feature, Face Time. Companies are currently trying to develop video-sex chat services and are hiring workers through internet advertisements in the US. Many are even throwing in a free iPhone 4 for the new employees. Face Time lets people call another iPhone 4 user and have live video conversations over a Wi-Fi connection through the front-facing camera and the screen.

In one of the TV advertisements for Apple’s Face Time, a soldier uses the feature to get a look at his far away wife’s ultrasound pictures. But the adult industry wants its customers to share moments of an entirely different kind with its stars. While the technology is new, the idea isn’t. VCRs became widespread due to the adult industry and the industry was amongst the first to embrace DVDs as wel. Michael Gartenberg from the media research company, Interpret said ‘The first time someone created a camera there was someone who said, ‘Wouldn’t it be good for someone to take off their clothes in front of this camera?” For several years cameras mounted on computers have helped connect people for “intimate” online video sessions but the portability and privacy of a mobile phone makes Face Time a new frontier for the industry.

Quentin Boyer of Pink Visual, an adult production company said ‘A phone is such an intimate thing, you usually don’t lend it out or have someone else use it.” He also mentioned how his company started planning for iPhone 4 video services almost as soon as the device came out, claiming that they should be ready in a matter of weeks. Boyer also said the company will offer Face Time sessions with some of the same women who appear in its videos. ‘It has a very personal feel – your mobile phone to hers,’ he said.

Apple on the other hand has made a point of keeping applications sold in its iTunes store clean. The company rejected book apps for featuring sexual content and political satires for their potential to offend. Last week it was accused of censoring its iBookstore by removing the risque short stories from its top ten list. The problem that arises here is that Face Time isn’t even an outside developer’s app, but a main feature of the phone.

Adult film star Teagan Presley poses with her iPhone in Atlanta. Presley is experimenting with Apple’s FaceTime feature

Watchdogs worry that Face Time could connect children to pornography or predators noting that parents can put computers in public areas of the home to supervise internet usage but mobile phones go anywhere. Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough Is Enough (a child safety group) said ‘Unfortunately, both children and sexual predators are often ahead of parents when comes to technology.” Apple’s response said that people can choose whom they chat with and parents can turn off the Face Time feature.

Another obstacle for the whole idea is that the iPhone 4 camera was specifically designed for face-to-face chatting. ‘You can have the phone on your face, or other body parts, but not both at the same time,’ said Teagan Presley, who acts in adult films and performs in video chats. Most customers want the full package though and it will still be difficult while holding phone. What do you think of the whole ordeal? Share your thoughts and comments below.