The EroTrix line is available in Portugal, Greece and Germany, but not yet in Britain due to content restrictions. Vivid co-founder Steve Hirsch tallied 30,000 downloads within two month’s of the service’s launch, according to a published report.
Playboy and Playgirl are offering content for European cell users, and smaller companies like the London-based RJMobile offer downloads of Ron Jeremy’s “groan tones.” Europeans have taken advantage of a more comprehensive and dependable wireless grid to adopt porn-by-phone before Americans.
Explicit porn is not widely available to U.S. cell subscribers, though some websites offer content that can be downloaded to phones. The difference is that European markets have embraced the format whereas U.S. authorities have neither said yes nor have many American firms stepped up to partner with adult companies in content delivery.
The exceptions are Playboy and Playgirl, which announced within one month of each other’s plans to deliver wireless clips domestically. Various civic and family groups have protested this prior to the companies’ plans taking shape. Vodafone’s U.S. partner, Verizon Wireless, is not committing to providing adult material, either, though it will not ban customers receiving it from other sources on their network.
Vodafone has created safeguards on its network to prevent minors from receiving adult material by phone, implementing credit card notification and AVS nets. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Alliance (CTIA), an American association convened by Vodafone, will seek to draw from Europe’s successes and standards in European adult content delivery to make a concerted effort to provide material domestically.
