The hot line to what?

FROM the end of this month, sexually curious teenagers will no longer be able to run up massive phone bills ringing sex lines at their parents' expense. If sexually curious teenagers were ever to blame in the first place, that is. The move by Telecom Eireann to bar these services to customers who do not requests a special identification number should at least help shed more light on who is using the lines, why, and whether they've got problems other than large phone bills.

Either way, the phenomenon is likely to be with us for some time yet. There will still be the officially "approved" services of course. These apart, neither Telecom nor the Regulator of Premium Rate Telephone Services, Judge Mary Kotsonouris, can prevent unapproved foreign companies doing deals with their local line providers, except to cut the lines when they become aware of them, as Telecom is doing at present.

And even if a binding international communications agreement were to stifle this lucrative business, there is the already growing area of credit card services, which at prices of up to £1.99 a minute are not dependent for profits on a "cut" from their local Telecom service.

The Star and `Sunday' World newspapers and Hot Press and In Dublin magazines are among the publications which carry advertisements for sex lines. Asked why In Dublin publishes the ads, its publisher, Michael Hogan, says "It's a revenue stream, it's as simple as that. "He couldn't put a figure on how much they were worth to the magazine nor had he, he added, any moral qualms about accepting them. "I don't hold myself out as being, the moral guardian of the nation.

Jackie Hayden, general manager of Hot Press, said that while over the years they had a policy of not running massage parlour ads, a decision which had probably cost them a considerable amount of money, the telephone sex lines they considered totally different "perfectly harmless, just fun." On the question of how much they made from the ads, Mr Hayden answered by saying that if they lost some such ads due to legislative change it would not be a matter of major concern for the magazine.

One of the ironic side effects of full regulation is that customers of the legal sex lines will now acquire consumers' rights. If calls are unreasonably drawn out, or require other numbers to be dialled for the service advertised, the service provider can be brought to book by the regulator say if somebody wants a heterosexual line and gets a gay service instead, then that's a consumer complaint of course it 5s," says Judge Kotsonouris.

Whether her role could extend to complaints about the bad acting or script writing of some of the professional thrill providers is doubtful. "I really wonder what people get out of it, anyway. There's very little imagination in any of the lines I've heard. Even the gay lines seem to be caught up in the cliche's of the French maid and so on. It's pathetic, but it's obviously addictive for some people," she says.

The criticism is echoed by sex therapist Mary O'Conor, who chaired a discussion on the subject on her 98 FM radio programme. "I listened to a lot of them as research, and I was struck by how amateurish it all is. A lot of them are just so pathetic. And that's what most of the callers to the programme were saying too. I always think of that scene in Short Cuts, where the woman is talking dirty on the phone while simultaneously changing the baby. If any callers saw that, their fantasies would never be the same again."

Judge Kotsonouris is quick to disclaim the role of moral guardian. "The big problem with these lines is that they can cripple families financially, because they seem to be addictive. And anyway, the public don't want them," she adds, citing a marketing survey which found that 65 per cent of people believed they shouldn't be available.

It is presumably the other 35 per cent, or a minority among them, that spends an estimated £1.2 million a year on the services. Whether some of these customers are addicts in the accepted sense is a moot point.

"I'm certain that it can be addictive, or that at least people can go through phases where it is so" says psychotherapist Rob Weatherill. "The fundamental thing about it is that it doesn't satisfy and therefore creates the need for more. And since it's a fantasy there's no connection with a real person there are no natural `breaks' on it.

ADOLESCENT curiosity aside, he thinks that sex lines are just one more way in which isolated men can get sexual gratification.

"Men are isolated, more so than women who have a lot of networks now. And certain men who are emotionally or sexually immature will always seek outlets that are impersonal. This was always true, but the availability of phone sex and other pornographic means has increased greatly, and so has the use. Of course it's a very crude exploitation of this need."

Phone sex is "the soft end of the whole global porn thing" which has resulted from the liberalisation of media and communications, he believes. "In the name of freedom, we have created a lot of problems, and I'm certain that this kind of liberation in particular is creating more abuse, both of adults and children. I'm sure this will be increasingly seen to be so.

Even unapproved lines will continue to be advertised after March 31st, Judge Kotsonouris says, unless and until legislation prevents this. The code of practice which she will oversee will merely impose standards of acceptability upon the advertisements.

The code also seeks to ensure that the legally available lines do not encourage dangerous practices,". One US line currently advertised features a woman describing how she is wrapping her male partner in cellophane, though the preamble to the tape does advise callers not to try this at home.