The internet is full of images of women flashing their bare bodies while chatting with men on chat sites. These girls, known as camgirls, have become a form of entertainment for some men who pay to watch them strip and masturbate in real time. In fact, some of these girls are so popular that they make a living out of their online sex work.
But the reality of being a cam girl is not as simple as just appearing naked and talking to men. Many of the girls that I interviewed for this article have stories that show how much harder the work is than it looks. Camgirls must contend with abusive messages, scams and the threat of having their naked videos shared on porn websites. Some of these girls have even suffered sexual trauma from their sex work.
Most of the cam girls I spoke to earn between $200 and $800 a day. They also have to buy and maintain their own equipment. The sites take 40 percent of the money they make, which leaves the models with only 20 percent. And while most cam girls do the work to have fun and enjoy the attention, some get addicted. A cam girl named Ona Artist makes around 1.3 million followers on Instagram and is a camming celebrity, but she tells me that she has been addicted to camming for years.
She is just one of thousands of women who work as camgirls in the US and abroad. The vast majority of these girls are paid in virtual tokens – an online currency used by the cam sites to circumvent financial institution rules against purchasing adult content – rather than cash. The tokens allow fans to tip their favourite models and to request private shows away from other viewers.
A typical session on a cam site lasts 30 to 60 minutes and costs between $2 and $5. The girls talk to multiple men in the same room and can have thousands of views at once. The large number of men watching the girls can lower their inhibitions, making them more receptive to requests for nudity. Most cam models also use drugs and alcohol to help them through sessions.
Some of the models I talked to were exhibitionists and did public flashing or masturbation in front of a live audience. The girls also have to deal with the possibility of their photos being taken and shared online by fans or porn sites. Most of these women are able to turn off their phones during a live show, but it is not always possible or safe to do so.
Many of the men who watch camgirls say they are lonely and need female attention. The women on camsites respond to this by becoming an object of desire for these men. Lonely men can spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on the attention of a pretty girl online. This digitised world of dating, porn and stalking has created a new form of fantasy where male attention is monetised.