LOS ANGELES—The coronavirus pandemic shutdowns and stay-at-home orders have led to a reportedly sharp rise in online porn viewing, as well as bringing new performers into the online space through cam sites. The increase has become so noteworthy, that The New York Times on Friday took its own deep dive into how camming has been affected by coronavirus.
According to The Times, cam site ManyVids has seen a 69 percent increase in model sign-ups in March, when the pandemic-related shutdowns began, compared to March of 2019. On another major site, CamSoda, new signups are up 37 percent — figures that probably are not surprising, given that 16 million U.S. workers have applied for unemployment insurance in the last three weeks alone.
With more than one-third of the world’s population now under some form of stay-at-home order, to curb the spread of the virus, viewership for cam sites is up as well — but according to models interviewed by The Times, the increase has not converted to a rise in income.
“There’s a large amount of people that are looking to jump into this industry for the first time, and that saturates the market quite a bit,” Toronto-based Cam Model Cecilia Morrell told The Times.
“I think people are not only hoarding toilet paper, they’re hoarding money, because no one knows when their next paycheck is coming,” added Raie, a British Chaturbate model.
“I’m meeting a whole bunch of people more frequently than I normally would, but there’s not much more money,” CamSoda model Mileena Kane told the paper, explaining that while her viewership has risen, each individual fan is tipping less than was typical before the shutdowns hit.
Kane told Times reporter Gabrielle Drolet that camming is her only job, in the adult industry or otherwise, and she is frequently on camera up to 12 hours per day — almost 365 days per year. She says that in 2019, she gave herself only two days off.
Another cam model, Oregon-based Valentine, said that she was worried the influx of new performers due to the lockdowns will not translate to added support for sex workers.
“Sure, do it, create an OnlyFans, start camming — but that means you have to support sex workers all year round now,” she told The Times. “You can’t just dip in and out of it because you think it’s easy and then trash us in the end.”
Photo By New York Times Video Capture
