The future of cybersex

Recode Daily

Recode

Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The mobile gaming giant Roblox is hugely popular among minors — most of them young kids. But it turns out the platform has a burgeoning strip club and sex work scene. Players say it’s all fun and games, but the lines are blurred when adult users get involved. E.J. Dickson (@ejdickson) with Rolling Stone joins Recode Daily to explain. References: Read E.J.’s story here Enjoyed this episode? Rate Recode Daily ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. What do you want to learn about on Recode Daily? Send your requests and questions to recodedaily@recode.net. We read every email! Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of Recode Daily by subscribing in your favorite podcast app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices This episode was made by: Host: Adam Clark Estes (@adamclarkestes)) Producer: Alan Rodriguez Espinoza (@ardzes) Engineer: Melissa Pons Support Recode Daily by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	And they are some our guide for Marmite first timers. First toast your pillowy soft bread.
0:08.0	Push that.
0:10.0	Liberally spread that butter. Stroke that Marmite open.
0:16.0	Dip that knife and spread that. Don't overload.
0:22.0	And taste that. Marmite. Love it.
0:27.0	Hate it. Get it on.
0:31.0	Hey everyone, it's Adam. A quick note before we start.
0:34.0	Today's episode is about strip clubs and sex work, so it may not be suitable for children. Thanks.
0:48.0	Earlier this summer we talked about Roblox, the online gaming phenomenon where millions of users,
0:53.0	most of them teenagers do just about everything. Here's what Jay Peters from The Verge told us.
0:59.0	Almost any genre of game you can imagine. It's probably there and you as your virtual character
1:05.0	or just you pretend to be somebody in this world and you're given tools to build an amazing house right away
1:11.0	or drive a certain car. And so there's just all kinds of different experiences
1:17.0	and it's more a matter of are you able to find what you're looking for because it's probably there.
1:23.0	And he's not kidding. There are even things like strip clubs in the world of Roblox and that got us wondering.
1:30.0	What could the future of cyber sex look like?
1:40.0	EJ Dixon recently wrote about strip clubs and Roblox for Rolling Stone magazine.
1:44.0	She's here to tell us more about how this kid-friendly game is tackling sex work on its platform. Hey EJ.
1:50.0	Hi, thanks for having me.
1:52.0	So first of all, how did you hear about these virtual strip clubs and what drew you to cover this side of Roblox?
1:59.0	So I first heard about them on TikTok. I spend a lot of time like an embarrassing amount of time on TikTok
2:07.0	and I started seeing all of these videos of Roblox strip clubs sort of promoting themselves.
	...

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