The users buy them through the cam site, and then tip them to whichever girls they prefer. Some take 40 percent and 30 percent and so on.” “Tokens are the currency on the cam sites. I probably do that once a week.” “And the cam site takes a percentage of it. Two to three hours.” “Thank God, I’m only contracted to do a show for two hours.” “My typical work day is 12 to 16 hours.” “I honestly feel like I work all the time.” “And there’s plenty of performers who have done 24-hour shows, you know? The whole-day shows and stuff like that.” “I have worked 24 hours straight. I don’t want to lose out on that.” “I would say hours, at least four hours a day.” “Two to three hours. So there’s no big tippers.” “Yeah, overall, there’s been a drop in financial generosity.” “I definitely have been working more hours now because of the pandemic. And I totally understand.” “People not only are hoarding toilet rolls. It was pretty dead.” “A lot of my fans are not tipping right now. But a lot of them have lost some income.” “I like - I’ve been thinking about the last cam session I had. It’s so friggin’ hard.” “Yeah, since the virus, it’s like you don’t know what time to be on and what time not to be on.” “People are home, yes. That’s the main thing I wish people would understand. And it’s not.” “Yeah, this is not an easy thing to do.” “The easiness is what bothers us, though -” “Yeah, that’s it. But there’s also way more performers.” “That’s becoming a big downside is the flooding of the market.” “Such a flood coming in to people wanting to do adult work, and stuff like that because they think it’s easy. Like -” “During this pandemic, we’ve had such influx of people coming onto cam sites.” “There are, like, new guys and new girls popping up every single day.” “So there’s way more people watching. Right now, with the virus, though, it’s pretty crazy. Sometimes they tip your for, like, a performance or an action. What those performances entail can range from all kinds of things.” “Sometimes they just tip you for nothing. Like, I wish, man.” “Camming, in general, is doing sex work live on video.” “Webcamming is performing online in front of strangers on the internet. “Sitting around, topless on the internet, and having thousands of dollars thrown at us? Like, that’s - that’s really not how it goes. For performers, though, what’s good for business isn’t necessarily good for them. Transcript How Cam Models Practice Sexual Distancing The online sex industry is surging during the coronavirus pandemic. At CamSoda, the number of new viewers to the site has doubled this year when compared to early 2019, according to the company. This growth is met by a recent influx of new viewers. of ManyVids, another camming site, said that there was a 69 percent increase in new model sign-ups. For the same period, Bella French, the co-founder and C.E.O. The performers work for tips, to accommodate laws that regulate sex work.ĭaryn Parker, the vice president of CamSoda, said there had been a 37 percent increase in new model sign-ups this March, compared to last March. Generally called “cam models,” these people might strip or dance on camera while viewers message them. Heart is streaming on CamSoda, one of many webcam or “camming” sites that stream live online broadcasts. And, as nearly half the world is under some form of stay-at-home orders, people who do this work are also seeing a large growth in customers. Heart have sought new work performing in sexually explicit live broadcasts. Heart has begun streaming performances from home, doing one live show a week.Īs 16 million people in the United States have applied for unemployment benefits in the last three weeks, a rush of people like Ms. Then the new coronavirus pandemic led to bar closures, and she found herself out of work. While working as a stripper in Oregon, Kelpie Heart had long thought about taking her work online.