Interview with Kamtaro, a camgirl

As a young woman, it is hard for me to not be aware of the work known as camming. If you are not doing it yourself, you may have seen ads for cam sites or have had friends who became webcam models at some point. For anybody who does not know, camming is a form of online sex work where the model (usually a woman) talks with or performs sex acts for their audience. This article in The Stranger provides some more information, albeit there is a bit of romanticizing. Again, as a young woman, I know many around my age who have turned to camming, with results and experiences that aren't typically covered by the media. As a proponent of various kinds of sex work, I wanted to include a post about camming on this blog that gives an inside look at this particular occupation. This is the resulting conversation with my friend Kamtaro...

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1) How did you become interested in camming?

A co-worker of mine was talking about it, and I thought it sounded like a fun way to make money on the side. I imagined it would be easy, just chatting with guys online and getting money for it.

2) How long did you do it for?

About three years, off-and-on.

3) What were some of your best experiences?

There was one man who called himself Barney Stinson that tipped me around one hundred dollars, and another who bought me a new webcam.

4) What were some of your worst experiences?

There were constant idiots requesting I do things for free, unsolicited "advice" from other models telling me I'd do better if I just got naked right away, and someone referring to me as a "Miley-Cyrus-looking-bitch".

5) Why were you adverse to the idea of getting naked right away on camera?

I wanted to be paid. I wasn't there to give a free wank session. If they wanted the goods, they'd have to give me something in return. Some guys have claimed that getting naked first will bring in more tips, but I've found that it isn't true, or that the money that comes isn't satisfactory - usually not even half of what I'm trying to get for that level of nudity.

6) Why did you quit camming?

It was too much work, with little-to-no pay-off, and I felt like it was getting risky as far as my personal life was going, since I started finding videos of myself on other websites that I didn't consent to sharing on. One of my friends had a guy from one site find her on Facebook and try to message her on there.

7) Have you done or considered doing private cam sessions, such as over Skype?

I used to consider it, but decided not to. I didn't want to give these guys even more ways of contacting me if I decided to leave the business.

8) Now that you no longer do it, what stands out most about your camming career?

How ridiculous the whole premise of it is, and the unrealistic expectations of how much money I'd make. It's hard to put into words why I think it's ridiculous. The clientele is usually rude, won't pay, and they'll become angry or demand too much for not enough money (guys wanting me to put stuff in my pussy - which was against cam site rules - for a measly two dollars).

9) What do you think camming businesses can do to help their models?

Better security, doing more to protect their site and models from being hacked, and protecting the videos and shows the models do from being recorded and put onto other sites.

10) What do you think is the future of the camming industry?

I think it will continue as it is now. Some women will get lucky and find an audience, others won't.

11) If someone expressed interest to you about wanting to try out camming, what advice would you give them?

I would let them know not to get their hopes up too high. You're not gonna double your income, you're gonna get sick of the audience, and you're gonna find your videos up for free on porn sites. If you do any private chats, expect that client to harass you and demand more of your time or more out of you than you're willing to provide. You really need to dedicate a lot of time and find a niche to become successful, from my experience. I think that looking at your camming career as a business would make new potential models think twice before joining.



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Most of what Kamtaro said does not come as a surprise, since she has told me most of this information before. (In that, I admit of a conscious bias of knowing what juicy bits to try to to squeeze out of her.) However, I had no idea that one of her friends had a stranger message her on Facebook, after finding a video of her cam session. That does not surprise me, though. In another interview I have done with another friend, she told me that people who knew her (she did not know their real identities) compromised her identity by writing out her full name in the public chat of her camming page. (This particular interview is going to take a while to be published, as she requested that its publication coincide with the startup of her blog.)

With what I have heard from my friends, finding videos of themselves online that they did not agree to have recorded and/or uploaded was the final straw of their camming careers. To have these videos taken down, they need to file DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notices, which can be a hassle. It is hard to run a business if people in your personal or professional life cannot find out about it. From what I have listened to over the years, it seems that people should only become cam models if they do not mind their friends, family, co-workers, etc. finding out about this line of work (and a lot of Americans who have done or do sex work usually do not like it to be known publicly, which is very understandable). I have also observed that many who have gone into camming have done so after receiving overly optimistic and idealistic visions of what camming is really like.

Unfortunately, I don't cam, but you can always give me money in exchange for my writing!

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