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SW H.O.T.T.I.

Sex Worker History of Technology & The Internet

“Prostitution is a communications technology...It signals."

—Melissa Gira Grant, Playing the Whore (London: Verso, 2014), pg 70.

Mid 1800s

Newspaper "tech" evolves alongside sex workers, including interviews, ads, and madam-run publications like the Denver Red Book.1 Journalist William T. Stead popularizes the interview format with his sensational series The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, which likens prostitution to chattel slavery and spurs the UK's anti-prostitution "Stead Act."

"Behind every successful publisher you're likely to find a dead woman."

—Gretchen Soderlund, "Trains, Newspapers and the Birth of the Modern American Sex Trade," Hacking//Hustling, 2021

Brothels use "love tokens" to regulate their internal economies, ensuring workers won't leave before the end of the week—when they can exchange their tokens for cash—while also protecting them from being robbed by clients.2

Mid-Late 1800s

Erotic photographs surge in popularity with the development of cameras, due to their lasting nature and novel technology. Stanhopes (or "peeps") emerge as an easily concealable technology to view erotic microphotography—a technology that has shaped the way that microfilms are used in modern archival practice.3

Late 1800s

Westward expansion and colonization triggered the development of a railroad system constructed by Chinese, Black, Irish, and Indigenous laborers. These railroads connected frontier towns, many of which thrived on the earnings of brothel madams and workers.4 This infrastructure would later form the backbone for telecommunication lines and, eventually, the internet.5

Vice patrols are established to surveil and suppress "immoral" activity. Anti-black in their foundation, their surveillance targets brothels, immigrant-run businesses, and integrated dance halls. They are tools for gentrification, used to "clean the streets."6

"Chicago’s Superintendent of Compulsory Education warned that '[m]ore girls enter the White Slaver’s mart through the portals of the disorderly dance hall than through all other agencies,'"

—A.F. Levy, "The Virtues of Unvirtuous Spaces," Wake Forest Law Review vol. 52 (2018): 403.

Brothels are early adapters of telephone lines, coining the phrase "call girls."7

1910

The Mann Act is passed, codifying the surveillance of "immoral behavior" under the guise of saving white women from sex trafficking. As a direct result, the FBI is expanded, and never scales back in size.8

"From this angle we can see how the Mann Act, which prosecutes based on the movement of bodies through space, skews to designate interactive computer services as vehicles capable of transport in order to legally justify the surveillance of digital space and the policing of digital selves."

—Gabriella Garcia, "The Cybernetic Sex Worker," Decoding Stigma, 2021.

1913

As film technology advances, sex trafficking and tech are portrayed as co-developing threats. In Traffic in Souls (1913), a savvy trafficking ring abduct and "enslave" white women—using telephones, dictographs, and flashy Model T's to outwit the public.

"These representations in popular culture were then used to justify increased policing of both sex work and technology."

—Gretchen Soderlund, "Trains, Newspapers and the Birth of the Modern American Sex Trade," Hacking//Hustling, 2021

1920s

Metered payment systems used by taxi dancers lay the groundwork for token-based peep shows, later reflected in anonymized token systems seen on webcam sites.9

1956

The image of a busty pinup is the first figurative computer image, used to calibrate a $238 million military computer. The SAGE computer pinup program, known as "girley1," was vector-encoded on Hollerith punch cards, an early method of recording and processing computer data. It served as a diagnostic test to validate data flow between computers.10

1972

The November 1972 issue of Playboy ~happens~ to be laying around the University of Southern California’s Signal and Image Processing Institute, where researchers choose Lena Forsén's centerfold to refine JPEG compression algorithms, without her knowledge or consent.11

late 1970s

Early iterations of text and ASCII porn are circulated via Teletext, a "pre-internet technology for sending text and graphics to a television set." *ASCII porn pic*12

1983

Whisper networks gradually evolve into printed "bad trick lists," creating essential infrastructure to protect workers from dangerous clients and law enforcement. Sally Dequadros and Marie Arrington, co-founders of Vancouver's Alliance for the Safety of Prostitutes, launch Canada’s first such list, the Whoreganizer.13 Over time, these print resources move online, with sex workers leveraging database engines like FileMaker Pro 2.0 and early WYSIWYG publishing tools like QuarkXPress to compile and distribute bad client lists more efficiently.14 Simultaneously, technological tools for business are also being used for resistance:

"We’re figuring out how to print our advertisements. We’re learning how to print bad date lists at the same time that we’re figuring out how to connect with clients on Twitter, we’re also figuring out how to use hashtags to organize with each other back when that didn’t get us blacklisted."

—Kate D'Adamo, "Magazines, Backpages & Obscenity," Hacking//Hustling, 2021

Early 1990s

The demand for pornography plays a crucial role in funding the early internet, as bulletin board system (BBS) operators are forced to upgrade equipment and install new phone lines to keep up with millions of image uploads and downloads. Frederick Lane outlines in Obscene Profits that by 1992, the U.S. had 45,000 BBSs serving 12 million users, generating $100 million in subscriber fees and requiring nearly five million new phone lines—resulting in over $850 million in revenue for local phone companies.15 Meanwhile, chat rooms and message forums like Usenet, P411, Craigslist, and RedBook give rise to client rate and review boards, where users detail encounters with providers—often without their consent.16

1994

CyberCash establishes itself as a key third-party facilitator for credit and "e-cash" transactions, and becomes a widely used plugin for adult content sites.17

1994

The Dutch porn site Red Light District develops an early compressed video streaming system.18

1995

Adult content makes up 83.5% of content on Usenet.19

Danielle Ashe makes great strides in online credit card payment processing, video streaming technology (DanniVision), and online affiliate marketing on her website—Danni's Hard Drive—which she started in response to her images being circulated on Usenet discussion boards without her consent.20

"Despite Amazon’s early claims that it had invented affiliate marketing, several adult companies were in fact in the game much earlier."

—Patchen Barss, The Erotic Engine (Canada: DoubleDay, 2010), 115.

Late 1990s

As personal websites gain popularity, they provide sex workers with new opportunities to advertise independently and collectively. Personal computers and digital networking expand people's online footprints, enabling providers to more easily screen clients based on their online presence. HTML and early web development tools like Macromedia's Dreamweaver made it easier to design personal websites—and to do so with users' privacy in mind:

"It was very common to design websites with a black or dark background...the glare of the white screen wouldn’t bounce back on him [and reveal what he was watching]."

—Sinnamon Love, "Digital Stimulation: Sex Invents the Internet," Hacking//Hustling, 2021

Porn companies pioneer realtime credit card verification protocols.21 Meanwhile, sex workers use prepaid debit cards to collect deposits, pre-dating modern electronic money transfer apps:

"You could pick up a refill card that you could then send someone the number...they could use it to be able to check into a hotel, purchase their flights. This is pre Cash App, Venmo, PayPal—sex workers were already finding ways to collect money from clients before going to an appointment or before getting on a plane or a train."

—Sinnamon Love, "Digital Stimulation: Sex Invents the Internet," Hacking//Hustling, 2021

1996

The anti-porn Communications Decency Act is passed—including Section 230, which retains immunity for ISPs that remove illegal content from their platforms, removing liability from online platforms.

Jennifer Ringley launches Jennicam, and becomes the first "lifecaster" camgirl, using early consumer webcams. David Dennis, a Jenni-fan and early ARPAnet contributer, endeared himself by providing free hosting and bandwidth for Jennicam on his own server. After Ringley moved webhosts and began charging for access to Jennicam (at $15/year), Dennis decided he could "only ethically provide her with the bandwidth if her site remained free," and—to prevent devaluing her content—had to be asked to remove the freely available archive he had "painstakingly collected and made available to her millions of fans"...22

"Is she then virtual? No, her extended nature encompasses both domains. Some pictures may not be really intended; still, her networking mastery’s plain."

—Howard A. Landman, JenniCam superfan

Cybererotica develops XXX Counter, a real-time market research tool that enables sites to collect traffic data for improving SEO, user experience, and ad sales. Analytics include traffic location, search terms, screen resolution, and browser type.23 Cybererotica also pioneers double opt-in technology to prevent being blacklisted by ISP spam filters.24

1997

Eros.com launches as one of the first online advertising marketplaces for erotic services.25

Aggregate cam portals build their own software to facilitate multi-stream hosting and chat room features.26

1999

RedBook launches as a local Bay Area discussion and review site for clients—later expanding its geographic scope and including provider advertising.27

2000

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act passes.

American Express becomes the first major payment service provider to stop coverage of transactions made on adult websites.28

2001

The Patriot Act passes. It is connected to the Trafficking Vitims Protection Act by their shared worldview of global criminal networks. Money pours into local police departments, agents of which are the main enactors of anti-prostitution policy.29

VeriSign, an internet infrastructure operator and authoritative registry for .com and .net top-level domains, acquires CyberCash.30

Early 2000s

After the TVPA & PA are passed, cops flock to online forums and utilize more advanced forms of financial tracking—as digital surveillance becomes a leading strategy in "the fight against terrorism/trafficking."

2003

Ringley shutters Jennicam, citing anti-nudity PayPal policies.31

Safira Solutions, a CRM software company, launches—cutting their teeth on one of the earliest Wireless Application Protocol platforms to deliver web content to mobile devices. Their first paying customer is Julia Dimambro, founder of Cherry Media and owner of erotic mobile content site, Cherry Sauce.32

The Department of Homeland Security is established, absorbing the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). This transition leads to the creation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a criminalized agency focused on anti-immigration and anti-trafficking enforcement.33 These efforts quickly result in a surge of massage parlor raids, fueled by the racist stereotype that "Asian massage businesses are hotbeds of trafficking."34

Mid 2000s

The multimedia cell phone market grows rapidly, benefiting mobile providers such as ARM, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony, and Texas Instruments. Adult content is a major focal point as demand for higher-quality video streaming on more "private" handheld devices rises.35

2005

Paypal acquires VeriSign's payment solutions.36

2010

Craigslist closes its adult section under pressure from Congress.37

2014

RedBook is shut down on charges of "money laundering and facilitating prostitution."38

2015

Rentboy, one of the oldest male escort sites, is raided and shut down on charges of "promoting prostitution," accused of being an "internet brothel."

"It is not possible to conduct prostitution on the internet; there’s no such thing as an 'internet brothel.'"

—Melissa Gira Grant, "How the Feds Took Down Rentboy.com," Vice, August 2015.

2016

OnlyFans launches.

2018

SESTA/FOSTA is signed into law, amending section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to remove safe harbor protections for ISPs in civil or criminal cases related sex trafficking or the “promotion or facilitation of prostitution.” The amendment was also applied retroactively, targeting sites like Backpage and pushing sex workers offline and away from digital tools that make working safer.39

“If we concede that order in cyberspace can be obtained by physical coercion, why don’t we call the shuttering of sex-work-friendly spaces online what it is? These are vice raids. This makes digital gentrification only the most recent iteration of a long tradition of criminalising behaviour in order to pave the way for private interests."

—Gabriella Garcia, "The Cybernetic Sex Worker," Decoding Stigma, 2021.

2018

Backpage is shut down on charges of "promoting and facilitating trafficking and prostitution," leaving sex workers with even fewer online advertising and screening options.40

2019

Craigslist shuts down its personal ads, Reddit closes sex work-related subreddits, Patreon and Tumblr ban adult content, CityVibe, Nightshift, and many other adult-service sites are shutdown—among many other casualties.41

1. Jan MacKell, "Chapter 3: In the Beginning There Was Denver," in Brothels, Bordellos & Bad Girls (New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 2004).

2. Gretchen Soderlund, "Trains, Newspapers and the Birth of the Modern American Sex Trade," Trains, Texts and Tits: Sex Work, Technology and Movement, Hacking//Hustling, 2021.

3. Patchen Barss, The Erotic Engine: How Pornography Has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2010), page 46.

4. Thaddeus Russell, A Renegade History of the United States (New York: Free Press, 2014).

5. B.R. Cohen and Jenn Stroud Rossmann, “The Roots of Digital Racism Date Back to 19th-Century Railroads,” Fast Company, October 2021.

6. India Thusi, "The Racialized History of Vice Policing," UCLA Law Review vol. 69 (2023).

7. Gabriella Garcia, "The Cybernetic Sex Worker," Decoding Stigma, December 2021.

8. Jessica R. Pliley, Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and the Making of the FBI (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014)

9. Gretchen Soderlund, "Trains, Newspapers and the Birth of the Modern American Sex Trade," Trains, Texts and Tits: Sex Work, Technology and Movement, Hacking//Hustling, 2021.

10. Benj Edwards, "The Never-Before-Told Story of the World's First Computer Art (It's a Sexy Dame),"The Atlantic, January 2013.

11. Linda Kinstler, "Finding Lena, the Patron Saint of JPEGS," Wired, January 2019.

12. Samantha Cole, "ASCII Porn Predates the Internet But It's Still Everywhere," Vice, January 2019.

13. Andy Sorfleet, "Alliance for the Safety of Prostitutes (1981-1987)," The Naked Truth, December 2018

14. Tilly Grove, "Tools of the Trade," Logic(s), July 2017.

15. Patchen Barss, The Erotic Engine(Canada: Doubleday, 2010), 82.

16. Sofia Barrett-Ibarria, "Sex Workers Pioneered the Early Internet—and It Screwed Them Over," Vice, October 2018.

17. Barss, The Erotic Engine, 171.

18. Brian McCullough, "Chapter 6 — A History of Internet Porn," Internet History Podcast, January 2015.

19. McCullough, "Chapter 6," 2015.

20. Sex Workers Built the Internet, Livia Foldes.

21. "How Pornographers Invented E-Commerce," Business Insider, August 2010.

22. Barss, The Erotic Engine, 120.

23. Barss, The Erotic Engine, 116.

24. McCullough, "Chapter 6," 2015.

25. A.F. Levy, "The Virtues of Unvirtuous Spaces," Wake Forest Law Review vol. 52 (2018): 408.

26. McCullough, "Chapter 6," 2015.

27. Eric Steuer, "The Rise and Fall of RedBook, the Site That Sex Workers Couldn't Live Without," Wired, February 2015.

28. "Amex Nixes X-Rated Exchanges," Wired, May 2000.

29. Melissa Gira Grant, "Digital Stimulation: Sex Invents the Internet," Trains, Texts and Tits: Sex Work, Technology and Movement, Hacking//Hustling, 2021.

30. Barss, The Erotic Engine, 171.

31. Hugh Hart, "April 14, 1996: JenniCan Starts Lifecasting," Wired, April 2010.

32. Bill Roberts, "Dirty Little Secret," EDN, July 2006.

33. Heather Timmons, "No one really knows what ICE is supposed to be. Politicians love that," Quartz, July 2018.

34. Gira Grant, "Digital Stimulation," Hacking//Hustling, 2021.

35. Roberts, "Dirty Little Secret," EDN, July 2006.

36. Barss, The Erotic Engine, 171.

37. Cecilia Kang, "Adult ads permanently off U.S. sites, Craigslist says," Washington Post, September 2010

38. Steuer, "The Rise and Fall of RedBook," Wired, February 2015.

39. "What is SESTA/FOSTA?" Decriminalize Sex Work.

40. Michael Patrick Welch, "Sex Workers Expect to Struggle After the Backpage Crackdown," Vice, January 2017.

41. "Discriminatory Tech Actions," Hacking//Hustling.