Once per month, Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals will be telling us a little bit about what’s going on in adult entertainment and why it should matter to you.
Vine Changes Its TOS To Prohibit Explicit Sexual Content
Perhaps you’ve heard: Vine, the Twitter-owned app that lets users make short looping shareable video clips, recently changed its Rules and Terms of Service regarding explicit sexual content – it’s now prohibited. As of March 6, 2014, Viners may no longer post content that’s pornographic or sexually explicit. This includes “graphic depictions of sexual arousal” (read: boners). Marking such content as “sensitive” is no longer sufficient.
Vine provides helpful examples of what’s NOT okay to post under their new TOS in their Explicit Sexual Content FAQ:
Sex acts, whether alone or with another person
Use of sex toys for sex acts
Sexually provocative nudity, for example, posts that focus on exposed genitalia or depict nudity in a context or setting that is sexually provocative (like a strip club)
Art or animation that is sexually graphic (such as hentai)
Close-ups of aroused genitals underneath clothing
In other words: no boners in pants, either.
But these policy modifications did not occur because explicit sexual content was taking over. In fact, according to Vine, only a very small percentage of videos would be impacted by these new restrictions… What?
Here’s the thing: Vine is wildly popular. And if, within all this wild popularity, there’re only a relative handful of now-unfit sexually explicit videos being created, why is this even an issue?
In a word: traffic.
I’m willing to bet that this is not about boners in pants so much as it’s about the traffic these boners get. (boners, butts, sexy nudity – you know what I mean!) If these explicit Vines just lived in some quiet corner of the Twitterverse, no one would care. Chances are though that a large percentage of the heretofore most viewed Vines are now unavailable since late last week.
If Netflix And iTunes Had A Porno Offspring…
So now that you’re not going to be able to get flash nudity from Vine anymore, what’s next? What about a streaming library (Netflix!) of porn with micropayment options and no recurring billing (iTunes!)? Welcome to SkweezMe.com.
Launched just this past January, SkweezMe.com is an adult internet television network that seems to reconcile these variable demands. At Skweez, users can access a wide variety of high-quality streaming adult content from thirty-five (and counting) studios including Sunlust, Wasteland.com, and DreamZone. Everything from parodies and features to transsexual, queer porn, and BDSM content is available, with approximately thirty new titles added per week.
Skweez also offers micropayment options and daily, nonrecurring billing. Users can purchase packages of tokens, with tiered choices ranging from three for $2.97 to ninety for $86.65. One token equals 24-hours of streaming access and as much binge viewing as you can muster during that time. *Exactly* what you’d do with “Breaking Bad” on Netflix. After they’re purchased, tokens can be activated whenever you want. And, as an added bonus, tokens can be used in three days or three years or whenever – they never expire.
Wait, what – pay for porn?!! I know, I know… but yes.
Here’s the thing: the vast majority of porn available on tube sites (things like PornHub) is stolen – pirated by third parties operating outside the adult entertainment industry. Piracy has resulted in staggering losses of work and revenue at every level, from porn stars to producers to guys in the warehouse. But people don’t seem to want to subscribe to things nowadays, and tube sites are fairly noncommittal, with great variety…
Skweez gets at consumer demands for content variety and payment options without relying on piracy. In many ways, it’s like a modern day version of an old school peepshow. Drop in a quarter for a few minutes of access, only here the floor’s not sticky. Well, not necessarily.
—
Chauntelle Tibbals is an embedded public sociologist. Her research has been published in numerous scholarly journals, and her ebook series You Study What? is available on Amazon. She has been studying the adult entertainment industry for more than ten years.
—
–