DeezNA said:
DeezNA said:
Camgirls themselves don't really do anything immoral or harmful in a way that would set Tumblr off. Sure, SWERFs are a thing but they're not a threat to camgirls because that would be completely counter-productive to their goals.
There are a TON of people who hate on what we do because they don't see it as a "legitimate job" or they think we're "whores" or whatever excuse they can really come up with. I don't understand it, I don't agree with it, but it's there. Maybe it's jealousy, maybe it's insecurity, I don't know... but the line between "you just get naked on the internet, you don't have a real job" and "You're a useless whore, I'm going to tell everyone where you live" is terrifyingly thin with unstable people.
By putting ourselves on display every day in public, it tends to attract mosquitoes over time just as much as any other form of performer would. There are always those people who think pushing all the wrong buttons and putting people in potentially life threatening situations is funny. It's not, it never has been and these people should, in my humble opinion, be chlorinated out of the gene pool.
I'm well aware of that fact that people believe sex work "isn't a real job", but most of the people who think that don't have the motivation to ruin the lives of cam models and put them in any real harm. It's seriously just an opinion, a shitty unfounded one, but an opinion nonetheless.
4chan and that stupid Lulzsec group that was around a while ago in particular are/were *notorious* for going on little pointless crusades with the sole purpose of making people feel like shit or actually causing notable damage to lives, jobs and safety. They see it as a game, a joke. It's fucking disgusting. And yes, Severin, you're right, it's sadistic. =P
Lulzsec exposed security flaws in major business websites; they never did anything with the intent to seriously harm anyone. Anonymous is the same way, but more about activism (usually of a political nature). Both groups operate on anarchy, both get amusement for what they do, but I wouldn't call them "sadists" because that implies they intentionally try to hurt people for enjoyment. This isn't like Lizardsquad which was DDoSing several online games just to piss people off, they usually have a clear agenda and try not to hurt innocent people. I guess you could say they're chaotic good? I don't see the necessity in most cases of hacktivism, but these guys aren't villains, they're more like anti-heroes.
I've been an active member of 4chan since 2006-ish. Most of the boards are hobby related, with the only "bad" ones being b, pol, and r9k. One board in particular, /soc/, is actually home to a lot of cam models who work for free because they're exhibitionists but don't want to be paid cam models for any number of reasons (many don't show face). Granted this doesn't mean there aren't people on 4chan who oppose camming, but considering the site itself has its own little camming community and boards like /gif/ and /s/ regularly consume and share our content I don't think they could muster a large enough crusade to do any serious harm to cam models.
I've seen /b/ threads where people troll Livejasmine models but outside of making a model cry one time, most of them don't actively try to ruin the models lives. Most of it was just trying to see how many models they could get to put shoes on their heads, not even kidding.
The safety threats that models can face, if that is in question here, are (to name a few) identity, location, security/safety, family safety, etc. There are a LOT of fucking lunatics out there and you never know who's watching.
An MFC member came to me last winter and showed me a screenshot they took of a model who was camming near their window paired with Google Streetview and Google Maps pins on the exact location of where that model was camming from due to the shape of the skyline behind her. He was proud that he had deduced the exact location, floor and side of the building the model lived in. This is terrifying. I went straight to the model, we both reported him to MFC support and I'm very glad they took immediate action.
I have had security scares in the past with real name/location leak threats and stalking threats. They can bring it the fuck on, I've got a guard dog and sizable armament to defend my home, but no matter how secure you are no one should ever have to feel like they're being watched, stalked, threatened, etc simply because they're doing their job and someone is "playing a joke".
It's fucked up.
I'm not denying that there are security threats when being a model, nor am I saying that people don't have a right to be concerned.
What I'm saying is, as someone who has had little social life outside of the net since age 11 (25 now), a lot of the fears and worries I see from people who aren't active members of certain communities (or active online in general) are unfounded. People online are largely either passive aggressive or relatively harmless pranksters. It is very, very rare to see someone actually lash out in a seriously harmful way (a la Elliot Rodger). By genuinely fearing for your well being, you are giving them way too much power. If someone makes you feel uncomfortable, ban, deep breath, and move on. If it gets to a point where they're getting really stalky like in the example you mentioned, take the additional step of reporting them and maybe re-assess your own actions in case you may have slipped up and said/did something to reveal info so you don't do it again. If you truly feel your life is in danger, figure out what you can do to make yourself feel safer (gun, watchdog, house cameras, etc). Bottom line is don't give so much power to ultimately powerless internet trolls to a point where you allow them to seriously affect your life, job, and mental state.
and descriptive to think it was just a scare tactic.
