# Phone Sex Lines? Those Are Really Still Popular? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992 "2008-09-10T20:55:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/1 "2008-09-10T20:55:56Z")
[http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/phone.sex.calls.2.813865.html](http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/phone.sex.calls.2.813865.html) Never really understood these things, but I guess I thought they sort of died out after the Internet, chat programs, etc. made various forms of interactive and non-interactive risque material available. Yet stories like this (or stories of businesses or government agencies frequently mis-printing a phone no. such that their patrons get mis-directed to some porno line) seem to keep appearing. How many of these things are there out there, who’s still using them, and why is that their best option/outlet? ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/2 "2008-09-10T22:38:16Z")
I still see tons of commercials for phone chat and dating/personal ad services. With Internet dating services like Match, OKCupid, eHarmony, and many others, I wonder “what’s the point?” Who would pay $3.99 a minute for the remote chance they would meet someone in a phone chat room, when they can pay $15 to $20 a month (or nothing, in some cases) to use an online dating service? ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/3 "2008-09-10T22:42:15Z")
I would guess it’s those who don’t have a computer at home. Hard to believe (esp. on an internet message board), but IIRC some 25% of US homes don’t have a computer. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/4 "2008-09-10T22:43:41Z")
Meeting may not be the aim of people who use such things. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/5 "2008-09-10T22:43:53Z")
> [@jk1245](#): > > I would guess it’s those who don’t have a computer at home. Hard to believe (esp. on an internet message board), but IIRC some 25% of US homes don’t have a computer. Whaaaaa? Is it really still that high? Come to think of it there is always a line for the public computers at the library, but I thought they were mostly homeless people . . . ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/6 "2008-09-11T00:21:34Z")
Browsers keep history nowadays, and your office IT staff can monitor your web usage, but most land line phones don’t have an outgoing call memory. And as long as the phone number isn’t 976-whatever, it could look innocuous. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/7 "2008-09-11T02:48:07Z")
It gets worse. With phone sex, there are at least 2 unknowns: [ol] [li]Whether she is interested in you[/li][li]Whether she actually looks like her ad[/li][li]Opal is worth way more than $2.99 per minute[/li][/ol] We can be reasonably certain that #1 is very unlikely. Nowadays there are at least 4 unknowns with the new late night TV trend: SMS sex. [ol] [li]Whether she is interested in you[/li][li]Whether she actually looks like her ad[/li][li]Whether she is a ‘she’[/li][li]Whether she is not some computer trained to talk like a nubile college girl[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/8 "2008-09-11T12:31:46Z")
I don’t know how popular phone sex lines remain, but there is a very interesting blog out there written by a very funny phone sex operator, Whore on Hold (http:/ /www.whoreonhold.com/) [link broken because the subject matter of the blog is a bit much for some offices], who discusses both the routine and outrageous calls she gets. ---
**Author:** ![ScarletSteve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@ScarletSteve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScarletSteve)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phone-sex-lines-those-are-really-still-popular/462992/9 "2008-09-11T12:44:56Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Whaaaaa? Is it really still that high? Come to think of it there is always a line for the public computers at the library, but I thought they were mostly homeless people . . . And libraries tend to frown on things you might want to do when engaging in phone or cyber sex. 😃