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| Cell
Phones: The Next Frontier For
Pornography |
| Date Created:
Sep 21, 2005, 01:19
PM |
 Pornography being broadcast
through wireless technology onto cell phones isn't
much of a business in the U.S. where carriers have
been unwilling to sell X-rated content. However,
the market for such content is thought to be
large, and it may not be long until adult wireless
content starts to
proliferate.
The cellphone,
which already plays music, sends and receives
e-mail and takes pictures, is adding a steamier
offering: pornography. With the advent of advanced
cellular networks that deliver full-motion video
from the Internet - and the latest wave of phones
featuring larger screens with bright color - the
pornography industry is eyeing the cellphone, like
the videocassette recorder before it, as a
lucrative new vehicle for distribution.
In
recent months, that prospect has produced a cadre
of entrepreneurs in the United States hoping to
follow the lead of counterparts in Europe, where
consumers already spend tens of millions of
dollars a year on phone-based
pornography.
The major American cellular
carriers have so far been adamant in their refusal
to sell pornography from the same content menus on
which they sell ring tones and video games. But
there are signs that they may soften their
stance.
The cellular industry's major trade
group is drafting ratings for mobile content -
akin to those for movies or video games -
signaling that phones, too, will be a subject of
viewer discretion.
For now, the Web-based
video available on many cellphones is crude.
Images take time to load and appear grainy, and
video feeds are often interrupted by inconsistent
wireless signals.
But Roger Entner, a
wireless industry analyst for Ovum, a market
research firm, said that as use of the Internet on
phones becomes easier, and as content ratings
emerge, it was inevitable that phone-based
pornography would become a fixture.
"It has
every component that has proven conducive to the
consumption of adult entertainment - privacy, easy
access, and, on top of it, mobility," Mr. Entner
said.
For the carriers, it is a tricky
proposition. Offering pornography would stir a
tempest over indecency and possible pressure from
regulators or Congress. But conceding the field to
third parties would leave millions of dollars on
the table.
At present, sales of pornography
over mobile phones in this country amount to
virtually nothing. But cellphone commerce is on
the rise, with sales of ring tones alone expected
to reach $453 million this year, according to the
Yankee Group, a research firm. The company
estimates that by 2009, sales of pornography for
phones will hit $196 million, still meager
compared with a projected $1.2 billion for ring
tones.
But the likelihood that pornography
will be increasingly accessible by phone has
children's advocacy groups mobilizing. This month,
the National Coalition for the Protection of
Children and Families, a nonprofit group that
seeks to promote "biblical morality," met with
leaders of the wireless industry to voice concern
that phones could provide minors with all-too-easy
access to inappropriate material.
"The
Internet hit us blindsided," said Jack Samad, a
senior vice president with the group, referring to
the slow reaction of children's advocacy groups to
the advent of online pornography. "We are
attempting to stay ahead of the curve" with regard
to mobile phones, pressing cellphone carriers to
give parents the ability to block
access.
The Federal Communications
Commission, meanwhile, has its own concerns, said
David Fiske, a spokesman. "The commission takes
very seriously the issue of inappropriate material
reaching cellphones that are in the hands of
children," he said.
Mr. Fiske declined to
comment on what actions the commission might take.
To some extent, though, the agency's hands are
tied in that mobile phone carriers, like other
telecommunications companies, are not responsible
for what Internet sites consumers visit. But the
carriers could be held accountable, experts said,
if they take part in selling pornography to
minors.
In the past, pornography has helped
to drive the popularity of new technologies.
including the videocassette recorder, cable
television and the Web itself, and it is a source
of revenue for many major media companies,
including cable giants like Time Warner and
Comcast, which have pay-per-view channels
devoted to pornography.
Many of those in
the business of pornography are not deterred by
today's technical difficulties in delivering
cellphone video. Harvey Kaplan, director of mobile
operations for xobile.com, a company in Charlotte,
N.C., that sells two-minute hard-core video clips
for download over phones, said he believed that
thirst for sex-related content would drive the
popularity of Internet-enabled
phones.
"People aren't going to go out and
buy a cellphone that streams video so they can
watch a trailer of a Disney movie," he said. "But
they will buy that phone if they have five minutes
of quiet time" viewing sexually explicit
video.
Xobile started in April, and Mr.
Kaplan said that each month the company was adding
6,000 customers, who pay around 44 cents to see a
two-minute video clip. To use the service, a
customer signs up and enters a credit card number
at the company's Web site from a computer or a
mobile phone. The customer can choose to watch the
clip immediately as streaming video, or download
it to view later.
Another fledgling
company, ohmobile.com, which began in May, offers
pornographic images and plans to add video within
the next month. The company is led by Jason
Edwards, who for six years has operated Internet
pornography sites through a parent company, Global
Internet Holdings, based in Carson City,
Nev.
"Adult for mobile is where adult for
Internet was 10 years ago," Mr. Edwards said. He
declined to say how many people had signed up for
his mobile service, which typically charges $1.95
for a still image and plans to charge around $4
for a video clip.
Mr. Kaplan, from XMobile,
said the growth of Internet-based pornography for
phones let major wireless carriers benefit from
the activity - through the data charges when their
customers download information - without having to
sponsor it.
"When you allow people access
to Net by phones, the telecom companies are
empowered with one of my favorite legal terms:
plausible deniability," Mr. Kaplan
said.
The bigger purveyors of pornography
are looking to become involved, too. "We look very
forward to being one of the leaders in the
business here," said Steven Hirsch, founder and
chairman of Vivid Entertainment, the largest maker
of sexually explicit movies, noting that wireless
content could earn as much as 30 percent of the
company's $100 million annual revenues.
"We are perfectly positioned with the
amount of content we have."
While some of
Vivid's hard-core materials can be found "off
network" (that is, not through the major cellphone
carriers), he said his company was focusing on
getting "on the deck" - available directly from
the carriers' cellphone menus, as ring tones are.
He said it was only a matter of time before the
carriers resolved what he termed the fundamental
roadblock: age verification.
"I think it's
really about age verification more than anything
else," he said. "I don't think it's about the
content."
In England, for example, age
verification is handled at the point of sale for
cellphones. A buyer provides proof of age. If
buyers are of the age of consent, they can
stipulate that their phones have access to
sexually explicit material.
Adam Zawel, an
analyst with Yankee Group, said that for mobile
phone users looking for content outside the
carriers' own menus - directly over the Internet -
the demand for pornography is already higher than
for any other category.
In Europe, people
spend at least $100 million a year for
pornography, from soft-core images of scantily
clad models to hard-core images and some video,
Mr. Zawel said.
The major carriers have
said that for now they do not intend to include
sexually explicit content on their menus. In a
statement, for instance, Cingular Wireless said
the company "does not provide adult content to its
customers." But Cingular, the largest wireless
company, also said it would not and could not stop
people from using their phones to obtain such
content directly from the Internet.
But the
major carriers, like Cingular and Verizon
Wireless, also note that they have protections in
place - for instance, allowing Internet access to
be blocked altogether on their phones.
John
Walls, spokesman for CTIA, the mobile phone trade
group, said that it expected to have content
ratings in place early next year. Such ratings, he
predicted, would include a category for people 18
or older, allowing carriers to feel more
comfortable selling sex-oriented content - at
least of the soft-core variety.
"If there's
a demand for service or product, then just from a
business standpoint you'd like to find a way to
serve that demand," he said. The article can be
found at this
link.
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