Pretty much a self-explanatory question, I guess.
Could a kissing booth – pay a dollar, get a smooch from a pretty girl or guy – be shut down because of laws against prostitution? Is that a form of sex for money, legally speaking?
Or are most prostitution laws more explicit (in both senses of the word) about what counts as illegal sex-for-money transactions?
(I’m not proposing that they should be…)
No.
On what planet does kissing-sex? Even lap dancing isn’t considered prostitution.
Note to self: think through the crackpotty posts before posting them.
Kissing booths obviously aren’t brothels, so my initial comparison was bad. A peck on the cheek isn’t much, but paying to French kiss seems kinkier and like it could run afoul of The Man.
The lapdance comparison is really more what I was thinking of. Seattle, for instance, is considering instituting a four-foot rule in strip clubs – dancers must be 4 feet away from patrons and can’t touch. And apparently that’s a rule in some other places, as well.
Which is a roundabout way of saying: there are laws that regulate the exchange of physical contact for money. Are there such laws anywhere that (perhaps unintentionally) outlaw kissing booths? (And is my hypothetical French kissing booth allowed? Because there’s an untapped market for you.)
And let me note again that I don’t believe kissing booths should be barred, but I just got to thinking.
IANAL, but I believe it actually depends on how the judge in the case decides to interpret sexual contact and the specifics of the circumstances. I don’t believe anyone would consider a kissing booth at a church bazarr a problem, but set up the same thing in an adult bookstore and it becomes a different issue.
I seem to remember a case from the newspaper years ago where a man in my city went to a car washing event that the high school cheerleaders were holding to raise money for a trip and he offered one of of the girls twenty dollars for a kiss. She complained to a supervising adult who called the police and the man was arrested and subsequently convicted of pandering.
I suppose it depends upon where the women are expected to kiss the patrons. “Listen girls, there’s a man here offering 50 dollars for a kiss, and you won’t even have to kiss him on the lips!”
Most states limit the charge of prostitution to sexual acts. For example, in Illinois, prostitution is:
There needs to be some contact with a sex organ. So, unless human biology has changed, a kiss, even a French one, on the lips is not prostitution.
That makes sense, and really, it’s what I would’ve guessed.
So, a better question than my OP: are there laws anywhere that forbid above-the-neck kissing for money? Or is this an untapped market that strip clubs should look into if they can’t offer lapdances anymore?
No, that’s not generally how prostitution laws work in the United States. Specific acts are prohibited in exchange for money in state codes.
What if, during the OP’s extended french kiss, the customer (a man in this case) ‘manipulates’ himself? This particular booth is concealed from public view. 
Peace,
mangeorge