# Could a kissing booth be considered a kind of prostitution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2004, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532 "2004-06-03T23:26:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2004, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/1 "2004-06-03T23:26:25Z")
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…) ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/2 "2004-06-04T00:04:35Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/3 "2004-06-04T01:18:15Z")
On what planet does kissing-sex? Even lap dancing isn’t considered prostitution. ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/4 "2004-06-04T02:17:48Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/5 "2004-06-04T02:26:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/6 "2004-06-04T02:39:12Z")
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!” ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/7 "2004-06-04T14:55:27Z")
Most states limit the charge of prostitution to sexual acts. For example, in Illinois, prostitution is: > [@](#): > > Any person who performs, offers or agrees to perform any act of sexual penetration as defined in Section 12‑12 of this Code for any money, property, token, object, or article or anything of value, or any touching or fondling of the sex organs of one person by another person, for any money, property, token, object, or article or anything of value, for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification commits an act of prostitution. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/8 "2004-06-04T16:03:34Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > 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? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/9 "2004-06-04T18:52:57Z")
> [@daffyduck](#): > > 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. No, that’s not generally how prostitution laws work in the United States. _Specific acts_ are prohibited in exchange for money in state codes. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-kissing-booth-be-considered-a-kind-of-prostitution/248532/10 "2004-06-04T20:12:40Z")
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