Last furlough in Paris – home porn goes viral

Britain

They wear masks and rubber gloves and pretend to be nurses or police officers. It is an unexpected development in the lingering British lockdown: amateur coronavirus porn.

Like most businesses, the porn industry has been forced to shut down because its activities are incompatible with a two-metre gap between socially distanced participants.

Yet for couples who have been trapped at home, the lockdown has opened the bedroom door to lucrative homemade videos on porn-sharing websites.

‘‘I really think professional studios should be worried about the future, because people like the authentic feel of amateur videos,’’ said Joe, 29, from south Wales.

When Joe and his partner were furloughed from their jobs and found themselves bored at home, they headed for the bedroom – and other parts of the house and garden – to make amateur sex videos. These are posted on the OnlyFans website, which claims to be gaining about 150,000 users daily.

Hundreds of followers who pay £7 (NZ$15) a month to access the couple’s videos ‘‘love that we are normal people you would see in Tesco, not the same basic look of studio porn’’, said Joe, who preferred not to give his surname.

Data from Pornhub, the world’s most popular video-sharing website, suggests Covid-19 is far from a turn-off for libidos inflamed by the sight of a mask or the thought of a police officer hiding in the bushes.

It has reported more than 8.2 million searches for videos about ‘‘quarantine’’, with overall viewership up by about 25 per cent since lockdowns were introduced.

One video entitled ‘‘Hot babe gets caught trying to leave the coronavirus quarantine area’’ has been viewed 300,000 times.

‘‘During the past weeks there has been a surge in new video uploads,’’ Pornhub confirmed.

Amateur exhibitionists must first apply to be verified by the website. They then upload their videos and are paid when the clips are viewed. Pornhub boasts more than 165,000 amateur performers, up by 41 per cent in the past year.

Popular themes in the coronavirus genre include ‘‘doctors and nurses’’ inspecting ‘‘patients"; women performing sexual acts in return for loo paper or dried pasta; and police officers turning up at opportune moments. – Sunday Times