What's So Wrong With Telephone Sex?

"PHONE SEX," according to one well-known American magazine, "has replaced the love letter as the preferred means of romantic communication for couples who find themselves apart."
What is phone sex? It involves talking about or listening to explicit erotic matters on the phone.* Those engaging in the practice often masturbate to relieve their arousal. Whether the obscene talk takes place between courting couples or between strangers, phone sex is alarmingly popular. In fact, some are openly advocating it.
"It's the safest sex you can have," claims one woman. Apparently, quite a few agree with her. For instance, in October 2000, in response to an increase in HIV infections, a group of Russian health experts took out newspaper advertisements to promote telephone sex.
Other people, however, are promoting telephone sex strictly for profit. Phone sex services—where people pay to hear obscenities—have become a billion-dollar industry in the United States alone.
Just why has this practice become so popular? The book The Fantasy Factory puts it this way: "Intimate physical and emotional contact is dangerous. There are physical risks of sexually transmitted disease, personal/professional risk of exposure, fear of judgment and the repercussions of 'abnormal' desire. Phone sex subverts the risk."
Granted, phone sex doesn't involve physical contact with another person. But does this mean that there is nothing wrong with it or that there are no dangers or risks at all?

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