I have a friend who has a successful career in an office dealing with clients, and who is also thinking about getting into doing sex work via webcam for some extra money and because well basically she enjoys the idea. She has friends in that business and they’re helping her get set up.
But she’s worried, of course!, that the chances of her getting “caught” (i.e. a client coming across her webcam site then telling on her) are higher than she estimates.
What do people here think about such a situation? On the one hand, you’d think people wouldn’t “snitch” because A. Likely they don’t mind since they’re watching the show, and B. Even if they’re inclined to for some reason, they’d have to be admitting they were watching, which there’s nothing wrong with but they themselves would seem to think there is if they’re considering “snitching.”
I pointed out (because she asked for my thoughts) that they could “snitch” anonymously, if they’re the type both to watch and feel bizarrely puritanically angry at people who do this kind of cam work. And, well, people are not logical.
What do you think about the various probabilities here?
Human brains are pattern matching machines, unless she is a master of disguise which is a tough stunt to pull off in a thong if she’s seen by enough people she will likely be recognized at some point. As to being outed if you saw a paralegal, accountant or web designer you recognized performing for a webcam I’m pretty sure you’re going to tell someone over drinks. Expecting anonymity while performing to (literally) the world is kind of foolish.
The other problem is that these performances can be (and often are) recorded and distributed across numerous free adult sites and can follow her forever if she gains fame or prestige. The intersection of those watching the videos and those dealing with her professionally is probably quite tiny so she might go a very long while before being outed, maybe forever, but if outed what then? All it takes is one person to recognize her.
I’m not sure I understand the problem of being “outed.” Would she lose her day job? Would anyone care? Maybe I’m seriously out of touch, but I don’t see it as a problem. “Hey, my paralegal also does sex cam work at night. That’s interesting.” Would anyone say “I will take my business elsewhere, I cannot do associate with this firm knowing this.”
The odds on getting outed are probably bigger than she expects. She could certainly make the odds worse for herself by including hints about her name or location in her web cam work. Or by having business cards on her desk promoting her cam site.
The bigger issue isn’t “Will I be outed?” The odds on that are not that far below 100% in my WAG. Certainly the more success she has in the webcam business the higher the odds. Likewise the longer she does it. The internet may never forget, but fresh content is always more readily available than old. So a few years after she stops making new content her stuff will be ever less available going forward.
The bigger issue is “What happens after I’m outed?” She’s a creative advertising saleschick in LA? Nothing. She’s a school textbook sales rep in a small county in rural Texas? She’s toast.
Given that she is asking for advice before she has even started her porn career, ISTM that the chances of her keeping it secret after are not good. Even people who don’t visit her porn site are going to hear about it, probably sooner rather than later.
Will it affect her day job? I suppose it depends in part on what her day job is. If she is a waitress or web supporter or something, maybe not. If she is secretary to the mayor or something, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
This is something else I would think carefully about before I proceeded, were I considering a career change to something like this.
But are people that unique in appearance? Surely almost everyone here has had that the experience of seeing a person and thinking it is someone they know–only to find out it is a stranger.
She’s an actress. Actors read the script. If that’s the role she plays, how is that different from an actor playing Hitler in a WWII picture, or Jack the Ripper? You can’t be held “to be” the character you play.
I’m not sure about the “near certainty” of getting discovered. (although she has to assume it’s likely) Aren’t there thousands and thousands of sex webcams out there on the internet? And don’t you have to pay to see one? I am not familiar with how these things work (not that there’s anything wrong with it) but I would assume only a few dozen people, world wide, would see her.
I’m terrible with faces but there are people who have a preternatural ability to recognize someone just from a glimpse of a body part or gesture or hearing them speak a word, all of which is going on with a live webcam. These are the people you need to worry about.
Also just to reiterate, webcam performances are not one shot deals that vanish into the ether after completion. They are often recorded by the cam site users, distributed to adult forums and then gathered up, bundled and farmed out as free content to super popular ad selling websites like xhamster where millions have access to browsing them without ever having to sign up for a paid cam site.
If you are a terrible cam performer you might stay under the wire but if you are good looking and good performer your chances of being outed eventually are pretty significant. Again, all it takes is one person.
Seriously? An actor playing Hitler isn’t actually ordering people into death camps, and a person playing Jack the Ripper isn’t actually disemboweling prostitutes. A regular actor might engage in simulated sex on camera, but someone doing sex work is actually engaging in sex for money.
In any case, it’s not a matter of whether it’s legal or moral, but what employers or clients think of it. If they feel what you are doing reflects badly on the company or is immoral, there can be repercussions.
For starters, no one pays to see you unless they know what you look like. There’s going to be some kind of advertising page with your picture on it. And, as someone else mentioned, you can’t prevent a client from recording their computer screen and you have only the most limited control over how they might repost that video to various web sites.
One of my concerns about these things is not so much a current-day concern, but a near-future one: it’s only a matter of time until a search engine like Google can use a photo of someone to find matching photos via facial recognition across the Internet. Such a search engine eliminates the protection of being lost in the clutter because any future employer, boyfriend, whatever, can do a face search throughout the entire Internet. The privacy advocates will scream, but such a capability is more a matter of when than if.
The probability of getting outed depends on the client mix, I suppose. But if she is worried she should think about getting a wig or something.
Or put on glasses. It worked for Superman, after all.
It’s a step in the direction of what I’m talking about, but their FAQ does say it won’t do facial recognition in the way that I’m thinking of. TinEye Reverse Image Search
It could identify you if you use the same picture in multiple places, though. So your web cam pic better be different than what you use on social media and dating sites.
