It should come as no surprise that there are so many people in Romania and all over the world who aren’t aware that what they refer to as “webcam chatting,” or more commonly, “webcam modeling,” is actually a deceptive and modern form of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. That’s a major aspect of the important mission driving the 9 Months In Romania project forward, teaching the facts. Over the course of this series, Debunking The Myths, we will present you with some of the most common myths surrounding this human rights atrocity and then debunk them by providing you with the facts. So, please, come along with us on this journey toward the truth!
If Discreet Means Pornographic Or Highly Suggestive Pictures On Porn Websites All Over the Internet And Porn-Related Social Media Accounts, Then Yes, It’s Discreet
Once a performer begins working on a webcam sex chatting website, pornographic videos and photos of them begin to pop up on porn websites all across the Internet, and as posts on porn-related social media accounts. However, this is not what they were told by the recruiter or studio that talked them into enslaving themselves by sexual exploitation. No, in fact, the performer was assured that, between selecting a phony performer name and the basic geographic-level IP address blocking the website offers, none of their family, friends, or neighbors would ever know of their being trafficked and exploited. That would obviously be better for the human traffickers who recruit, and operate the studios, and run the websites, but that is not reality. Webcam sex chatting is far from discreet.
What’s In A Name? Certainly Not Discreetness!
One of the first things a new performer will do when entering the world of sexual exploitation is to choose a username. That is, they will select the name that they will be known by on the website(s) they are performing on. This is supposed to offer some level of discreetness and protection for the performer. However, with the volume of photos and videos that accumulate across the Internet over a period of time, a phony name will not shield them from being discovered by a family member, friend, neighbor, or even a potential future employer. In essence, it does not protect the performer or their reputation. What’s worse, most of these performers can be eventually coaxed into sharing their real name with certain individuals who may or may not wish to further exploit them. Over the course of our time working on this project, we have learned many names, locations, and even phone numbers of performers. Of course, we don’t seek to exploit these women, but this stands as proof of our claim that webcam sex chatting isn’t discreet, and this point will come up when we demonstrate how it isn’t safe either.
Geo-Blocking: It’s Terribly Unreliable
We’ve already highlighted the word games the pornography industry and its human trafficking minions play to deceive potential performers into believing that what they’ll be doing is not anything but some harmless modeling, but it gets even more deceptive than that. They also lead these women to believe that nobody in their home country will ever know they are in the line of work, because the websites offer nation-based blocking. To accomplish this task, the websites utilize basic geo-blocking. However, you won’t have to do too much research to learn that geo-blocking is incredibly unreliable, since it can be easily circumvented using a VPN, Virtual Private Network, connection. Ironically, in this age of digital theft, the use of VPN’s is being heavily promoted as a means of staying safer on the Internet. There are a number of companies in existence, like TunnelBear, who offer this as a monthly-based or yearly-based service to consumers who cannot or don’t want to setup and maintain their own in-house VPN equipment. With a VPN, anybody can hide or even falsify the location from which they are physically connected. So, for instance, a person in Romania could use a VPN connection to make it appear that they are connecting from the United States. If a webcam sex chatting studio is blocking connections from within Romania, this particular individual would see all profiles being hidden by this blocking, since the website would believe that they were connecting from the United States.
In Summary, Webcam Sex Chatting Isn’t Discreet
So, when we consider that pornographic photos and videos of the performer will eventually make their way across the Internet, including as posts on porn-related social media accounts, and when we consider that many performers will eventually share their real names and other personally identifiable information with website members anyhow, and when we consider that webcam sex chatting websites use geo-blocking, which is easily circumvented, especially in modern times when VPN use is becoming ever more popular, we can, without reservation, conclude that webcam sex chatting is not discreet. And in case you were wondering, yes, that previous sentence was a mouthful, but we did it for effect. Savvy?
Up Next…
In the next installment of Debunking The Myths, we’ll consider the claim that webcam sex chatting is safe. Thank you for indulging us with your time and attention, and we’ll see you next time!
