“Webcam model” and “online content creator” are often just other ways of saying “online sex worker” — not always, but often. While camming has become a great way to earn an excellent income, openly working in this field can be very stigmatizing in your day-to-day life. Therefore, it is important to protect your privacy as much as possible.
Technology is getting better and faster each day, which means keeping your anonymity online can be very challenging. In a perfect world, you could perform your shows with never showing your face, which would be a great way to keep your true identity a secret. [Editor’s note: Actually, in a perfect world, you could do what you wanted that caused no harm to others without judgement or stigma, but we are wayyy not there yet, so let’s just go with identity protection as a first step.]
For various reasons, many people want to see the face of the person they are interacting with. Further, platforms need and want to see your face (and IDs) clearly to verify you are both legally able and consenting to work in this field — which is a good thing! As a consequence of these variable factors, some of which are somewhat at odds with one another, protecting your privacy online can get a little tricky.
Here are several ways to help protect your privacy and still let you create a lucrative online business.
Change Your Look
Create a “persona” that differs from how you look in real life. For example, if you are a blonde, wear wigs to change your hair color. Have fun with your online look. You can be a brunette or redhead, or even fun colors like purple or pink hair. Be sure to change up the length and style.
Hair color and style is just one way to do this, but wider point is to consider looking as different from the “real” you as possible. Keep in mind that if you go online with your normal “everyday” you, it will be fairly simple for anyone to plug your picture into Google search “find similar.” Google will then produce a bunch of photos that look similar to the picture being searched. This means there’s a high likelihood that someone could find out your real identity. Therefore, it’s crucial to change your appearance for any on-screen work if this is an issue you consider important.
No Personal Information
Never use your legal name. Create a stage name for your online persona, and use a new email account for this new persona. If you plan on receiving gifts from fans, then get a box at a postal place. It is also a good idea to get a separate phone for sexting or providing clients with virtual girlfriend experiences (VGFE). Never open these accounts under your legal name and actual physical address.
Change Your Surroundings
This is similar to changing your “look.” A good plan is to set up a room in your home or apartment that will be just for your webcam work. It is better to *not* use your personal bedroom. Otherwise, you could risk people recognizing your room because of mementoes in your room or the décor. Instead, fix up your webcam room to differ completely from how you would normally decorate a bedroom. The whole point is to be hiding in plain sight. Having a designated space also helps when trying to block off work time and personal time.
Use Geo Blocking Technology
Most online platforms offer options to block certain zip codes and/or entire geographical areas. Utilizing this type of technology can help you avoid being “found out” by people close to you and possibly current or future employers.
This brings up another topic to contemplate. Once you enter the world of sex work, you may find that when (or if) you want to go more “mainstream” that it may be nearly impossible. Many employers who find out that a person worked previously in any facet of the porn industry either immediately gets fired or never gets the job to start. This type of discrimination, unfortunately, is completely legal.
Today’s anti-discrimination laws do not offer any kind of protection for former sex workers. This is just another reason it’s important to protect your identity as much as possible.
All things worth considering as you move in to online sex work!
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Gabriella Vita is from Las Vegas, NV and has been writing for over ten years under multiple pen names. She believes variety is the spice of life, which is why she enjoys writing on a plethora of subjects. Email her at gabby@ynotcam.com.
Background header image via Unsplash here.
