Hold the phone. 1-800-PHONE-SEX, America’s largest provider of phone sex, has been under attack from the City of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles City Council (“LACC”) is reinterpreting legislature to recognize 1-800-PHONE-SEX as a public utility. Traditionally defined as a business organization performing a public service, the reinterpretation of public utility has been met with resistance from California’s residents, who continue to view all adult entertainment as taboo.
When asked to comment a spokesperson for 1-800-PHONE-SEX stated, “We would like to thank the Los Angeles City Council for pointing out that 1-800-PHONE-SEX is as crucial to the city’s function as public utilities.”
Wielding the new Communications User Tax, auditors for the City of Los Angeles have spearheaded this dramatic change in public policy, but the public debate comes down to whether or not levying a nine percent public utility tax on phone sex supersedes social norms and public morality. However, the outcome remains the same: the LACC is recognizing that 1-800-PHONE-SEX is as crucial to the function of Los Angeles as electricity, water and sewage management.
Phone sex was recently the focus of a Saturday Night Live skit featuring Cameron Diaz, conveying its popularity as a predominant form of adult entertainment. Its consumers enjoy the two-way interaction with phone operators, who provide callers a new and unique experience on every call. Regardless of taxation, Americans will continue to use 1-800-PHONE-SEX for entertainment, but the impact of public policy normalizing the service has yet to be realized.
