It's a shame, but it's not clear: how and for whom do webcam studios work in Russia
Russia has become one of the world leaders in the number of webcam studios offering paid online explicit content. Moreover, their "products" are mainly exported — most often erotic broadcasts are consumed by citizens of Great Britain, Germany and the USA. Models working in these studios sometimes earn up to 250 thousand rubles a month, but more than half of the income is taken by the streaming platform, and the girls themselves often become victims of harassment, blackmail and even violence. About how dubious show business is organized in Russia and whether it can be legalized in our country - in the investigation of Izvestia.
Part-time jobs for minors
A webcam studio has been found in Moscow on Kaluzhskaya Square, where underage models are hired. The organization is secretly located in one of the apartments of the building, where, in addition to the living quarters, the Russian State Children's Library is located, and just 200 meters away are the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Penitentiary Service.
The Youth Protection Center and the Youth Parliament conducted an experiment in which they sent a 14-year-old girl with a hidden camera to the WCD studio. She came there under the guise of employment, no one asked her for documents, but they immediately told her about the advantages of the job and offered to go on a trial shift, that is, to conduct an online broadcast in front of a foreign audience. When the teenager asked if it was possible to completely undress in the frame, she was answered: "At your discretion."
Public figures contacted the police about this episode. It is not known whether there was an on-site check of law enforcement officers after that. However, since there was no filming of a minor in the nude, there may be no grounds for a criminal case, and webcam itself as an activity is not punishable by law.
The day before the activists went to the studio on Kaluga Square, a correspondent from Izvestia visited the studio. She also came to an interview under the guise of a model candidate, took off the interior of the room and talked with the managers. After a “tour” of the premises, the journalist called a police squad, making a statement about being at the studio where pornographic content was being filmed. The police arrived at the scene, but did not enter the apartment — at that time, the employees had no legal grounds for entering private property.
The studio has pages on social networks and messengers, but it is not known who owns it.
Web prostitution
The global adult webcam industry (interactive online broadcasts with explicit content) reached a turnover of $5.5 billion last year. Russia ranks second in the world in terms of the number of registered webcam model accounts, with thousands of girls continuously filming in underground studios across the country. Despite the widespread occurrence of the phenomenon, it is not regulated by the state in any way.
State Duma deputy Artyom Metelev wrote a letter to the Interior Ministry with the idea of a bill that aims to completely ban the activities of webcam studios and clarify the concept of virtual sex services. He proposed to take two articles of the Criminal Code — 240 and 241 (involvement and organization of prostitution), replace "prostitution" with "sexual services" in them, and increase their liability to 15 years in prison. Plus, to introduce punishment for viewers of erotic webcam shows with underage models.
The Interior Ministry responded to the deputy's idea with a letter with preliminary comments. The Agency noted that the proposed initiative in its proposed form would introduce fundamental contradictions into the current criminal legislation and lead to inevitable legal incidents in practice.
Lawyer Anastasia Shardakova agrees with the position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding the deputy bill.
— The proposed changes will lead to competition of legal norms. Currently, the activities of webcam studios may fall under paragraphs a and b of part 2 of Article 242 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. When minors are involved in the production of pornography — under 242.1 and 242.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, etc. When making changes, there will be a problem of qualifying actions and, as a result, may lead to a reduction in the amount of penalties, here I agree with the position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In addition, there may be a double responsibility for the same act. So, the organizer of the webcam studio will be responsible not only under 242, but also under 241 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation," the lawyer explained.
Deputy Metelev told Izvestia that the bill is now being finalized in accordance with the comments of the Interior Ministry. He clarified that the initiative is aimed primarily at studio owners, not webcam models.
— Models often get into the studio against their will — they are lured by deception, and then they are threatened or blackmailed if they refuse to work. As for those who work on their own, let it be their own business. We are specifically interested in organized business and its owners," the deputy explained.
Vague boundaries of what is allowed
In Russia, it is impossible to officially register a studio or register self-employment as a webcam model. Employers do not conclude contracts with girls, and no one is immune from cheating. Eroticism on streams is not prohibited by Russian law, but studio owners and their employees can be prosecuted for pornography under Article 242 of the Criminal Code.
As Anastasia Shardakova explained, not all industry participants understand the difference between "eroticism" and "pornography" in law.
— Eroticism primarily affects the emotions of the viewer in order to evoke aesthetic feelings and ideas. Eroticism has an element of understatement, it emphasizes the beauty of the human body without a special purpose to arouse the desire for sexual intercourse. Pornography, on the other hand, crudely naturalistically and obscenely depicts sexual intercourse with an emphasis on the physical contact of the genitals and the physiology of sexual relations. If eroticism has artistic value, then pornography does not," Shardakova said.
In the case of the webcam, if article 242 was initiated, the lawyer explains, then cultural and art expertise will be used to determine what was in the frame - eroticism or pornography, therefore it is difficult to outline clear lines of what is allowed in today's realities in advance, each case will be considered separately.
One of the first cases against webcam studios under Article 242 in Russia was opened in Volgograd in June 2020. The police conducted more than 20 searches, during which more than 20 video cameras, computer equipment, communications equipment, bank cards, and information carriers were seized. According to investigators, a 31-year-old local resident persuaded ten of his acquaintances between the ages of 21 and 39 to create a webcam studio, six of them were models themselves.
In Cherepovets, in September 2020, police raided 30 addresses at once, where they found an underage model and prohibited substances. In total, more than 120 people were questioned during the investigation, more than 50 searches were conducted, equipment and digital devices were seized. Funds worth more than 12 million rubles were seized from one of the accused.
In 2021, raids took place in two cities at once. In March, eight people were detained in Krasnoyarsk, who, in addition to the 242nd article, were also charged with the 210th article on the creation of a criminal community. In April of the same year, the police went around five studios in St. Petersburg and detained 11 people between the ages of 20 and 42. They were all charged under article 242, and in December 2024 they received suspended sentences of 2.5 to 3.5 years. Two of them were webcam models.
In February 2022, the police stopped the activities of webcam studios in Omsk, in July 2024, five defendants in this case received from 2.5 to 3.5 years of probation under Article 242. Among the accused was not only a 29-year-old organizer and managers, but also a model.
In January 2025, the Interior Ministry announced that it had conducted searches in studios in Saratov, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar. According to investigators, a resident of Saratov organized several studios in which at least ten models worked, and two operators controlled their activities. The organizer was taken into custody, the managers are on their own recognizance, and all three have been charged under article 242.
The bad ones should be closed, the good ones should be left
Olga, a webcam model from St. Petersburg, who was previously sentenced to 2.5 years probation under Article 242 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, does not agree with initiatives to toughen up webcam activity and advocates its legalization. She is convinced that the main criterion is the absence of harm.
— I was convicted just because I was a model. Why are the models being blamed? There can only be a crime where there is a victim, and I did not harm anyone," Olga says.
According to her, instead of banning webcam, it is necessary to clearly spell out the conditions of legality. An adult capable person should have the right to do this consciously and freely dispose of his body, Olga believes.
— There are bad studios that cheat, work with minors, use threats and blackmail. They need to be closed. But when a studio is honest, voluntary, without violence and threats, it should have the right to exist. We had just such a thing," the model explains.
She believes that webcam helps men to meet their natural needs in an environmentally friendly way, instead of harassing girls on the street or committing violence.
In addition, according to Olga, the majority of webcam models are foreigners, and under the conditions of sanctions, this work brings money to the Russian economy. Girls earn money at the expense of citizens of unfriendly countries, and spend money in their own country. Legalizing webcam would allow studios and models to honestly pay taxes on their activities.
Another advantage of legalization, according to Olga, is the protection of models by law from blackmailers. Right now, models can't turn to the police for help, knowing that they themselves are breaking the law. Legalization will make it possible to openly resolve such issues and bring violators to justice.
The majority of representatives of the webcam industry interviewed by Izvestia did not want to comment on the topic of potential tightening of laws. As one of them explained, "The answer here is simple: because there are a lot of opponents of the adult industry, and there's no point in saying anything, because you can't hear us over the screaming of the crowd. Participants, as a rule, just want to work quietly so that no one covers anything."
Profitable, but risky
Webcam studios balance between openness and secrecy: there are usually no external signage indicating the activity profile, but you can find addresses and contacts of such places in just a couple of clicks through the search engine. The industry does not keep official statistics, but according to the well-established opinion in the professional community, St. Petersburg has become the leader in the number of operating studios, where the number of such institutions can be about 200, which is significantly more than in other cities of the country. There are several online catalogs with a list and rating of Russian studios on the network, the largest of them has a list of 781 organizations, but this figure may be higher, since not all industry representatives declare themselves publicly.
There are two types of studios — online and offline. In the first case, the model works alone in a separate rented room, and interacts with the rest of the participants remotely. The offline version usually consists of a spacious apartment, where models work in shifts in each room (usually in three shifts of eight hours each) according to a clear schedule set by managers.
They are fined for tardiness and absenteeism. In addition to models, studio staff usually includes administrators, recruiters, and operators. Administrators are engaged in general coordination, answer calls and messages, promote the studio on the network. Their average salary does not exceed 50-100 thousand rubles per month. Recruiters attract new models, and their rate depends on the number of employees they bring in and how long they stay in the studio. The cameramen are responsible for filming, telling the model how to behave and helping her to correspond with the members (viewers of the webcam show). The operator receives a share of the earnings from the broadcast. The model can do without an operator if it is fluent in a foreign language and technology.
The income of the models themselves, based on their reviews, varies in a wide range "from zero to infinity." Studio websites usually have a “calculator” of projected earnings. The calculation parameters take into account the experience of the model, the number of streaming hours per week and the time of day of work, as well as knowledge of foreign languages. Good English is a big plus for the model, as the vast majority of the members are foreigners, among whom the majority are Americans and Britons. In order to work for clients from the United States, it is most profitable to stream models at night for Russia. The very average figure of the models' net earnings is about 200-250 thousand rubles per month. Part of the income, about 30-50%, is taken by the site itself, the rest is shared with the studio (about 50% more) and the operator, in total, the model itself gets 20-30% of the initial amount. Some models work in the frame in pairs.
According to market participants, webcam has a very high turnover rate. Nine out of ten don't stay in one place for two months. Studio models who bring little money are kicked out by themselves. In general, the work is characterized as monotonous and requires more self-discipline and consistency in broadcasts than creativity.
Models can work from home on their own without intermediaries, but since the industry most often comes from the need for quick earnings, and equipment is required for work, newcomers simply do not have the means and skills to create the necessary working conditions.
Judging by the anonymous stories of entrepreneurs, it is relatively inexpensive to open your own small offline studio — up to a million rubles. The initial investments include the creation of a trendy interior with an intimate atmosphere, video equipment, a high-performance PC, sex accessories, hygiene products and the initial overhead costs for labor, rent and advertising. The business is highly profitable and, with the "right" approach, pays off in a few months, one studio can bring a net profit of up to 3-4 million rubles per month (with a staff of 25-30 models) with a turnover of 10 million and initial investments of about 5 million rubles. The main expenses are salaries for employees, rent of premises, plus advertising.
As follows from the Fontanka article for September 2022, the webcam industry in Russia has suffered greatly since the beginning of its development. A number of services and platforms refused to work with Russian studios and models, and girls began to receive insults on their broadcasts more often. It has become more difficult to withdraw funds — now cryptocurrency is most often used for this. Some studios have moved their staff abroad, most often to Thailand, Armenia and Georgia. However, over time, the industry has adapted to the new realities.
Almost none of the studio owners agreed to communicate directly with Izvestia. Two of them demanded payment for an anonymous interview.
— There are no problems for us, all the models work at home, so the police won't come to them, and they are safe. The only thing is that we don't pay taxes. If they legalized it, they would pay taxes, and everyone would be fine," International, which operates in Russia and Thailand, told Izvestia. — Again, legalization opens up the possibility for the state to receive income taxes.
According to industry representatives, competition is high in St. Petersburg and Moscow, while it is not as strong in other cities. The price tags for opening a studio and the profits vary greatly, it depends on the scale and number of models at the start.
— The income of 100-200 thousand rubles is average, there is much higher, someone makes 100 thousand a week in general, this is the earnings of a purely model. We give models 70-80% of our earnings," the organizers of the illegal business admitted.
Regarding the “toxicity” of working in a webcam for models, the entrepreneur noted that everything is individual and depends on what rules prevail inside the studio itself. There are cases of coercion on the part of their owners, after which, according to him, the girls become “psychotic.” There are also positive examples of friendly atmosphere and long-term cooperation.
Nurses for the lonely
Webcam broadcasts are divided into "nude" and "non-nude" formats. The second one is less popular and profitable, but there are exceptions. Basically, the broadcast looks like this: the model is sitting in the frame and flirting with the public, in the sidebar of the website interface there is a chat with a "tip menu", which indicates what she is ready to do for a certain fixed fee or upon reaching a certain total amount of donations (donations). Viewers give her tips in the form of "tokens" — the internal currency of the site.
The usual range of services offered by the model, as the price tag increases, ranges from light virtual caresses, nudity and dancing to intimate scenes.
The main task of any model is to establish contact with a wealthy member so that he goes out with her in private — face—to-face communication in a closed chat, where the payment rate is much higher, and where he can ask the model to fulfill some special wishes for a generous reward. In private, a member can turn on his camera so that the girl can see him too. For a stable income, the model needs to create loyal customers.
There are many tips online for webcam models on how to make a bigger check or, simply put, earn the most from each member. There are entire info courses and coaches that teach online charm skills. On forums and thematic resources, girls share curious cases from their practice, most often talking about ridiculous or frightening requests from members.
As the models themselves admit, most viewers come for communication, trying to avoid loneliness. There are many fetishists among their clients who are embarrassed to tell someone about their fantasies in person, but they are willing to pay models for their realization on camera. The platforms prohibit violence and blood in the frame, copro, necro, bestiality, as well as filming of minors. Also, a typical way for models to earn money is by selling their used underwear and personal belongings.
Virtsex, drugs, blackmail
Working in a webcam sometimes negatively affects the psychological state of models. It is not uncommon for them to begin to deal with stress with the help of prohibited substances. In studios, work under the influence of prohibited substances is usually formally strictly prohibited, but as participants in the field describe the real situation, in practice this condition is far from always fulfilled. People most often do not come to the profession from a good life in search of quick money, as a result, they only aggravate their situation with a deteriorating psyche and health due to drug use.
The main scourge of webcam is stalking and blackmail. Almost all girls at the beginning of their career hide their occupation from their relatives and friends. And most of them sooner or later face extortion, when unknown people write them personal messages demanding to pay the nth amount (it all starts from 15-30 thousand rubles), in exchange for not revealing their secrets. It is useless to fulfill the conditions of the blackmailers, because after the first tranche they will definitely return again. On the "profile" resources for webcam models, a lot of materials are devoted to tactics of behavior during extortion.
In 2021, the Polina Crisis Center for Women published a sociological research report based on surveys among webcam models from 2018 to 2021. According to the researchers, 96% of webcam models are women, and the average age of engagement is 23 years old. At the same time, 80% of their income is taken by studios and streaming services, forcing models to work eight to ten hours five days a week in order to gain a plus.
Violence is a common problem: 22% of webcam models have faced pressure and coercion from clients, and 12% have experienced abuse from studio administrators. After leaving, 15% of women were blackmailed with intimate materials or harassed.
The mental health of the models is seriously affected — 45% experience increased anxiety and depression, and 30% report sexual problems after webcaming. Almost 20% experience eating disorders. The use of alcohol and psychostimulants while working in the industry is often increasing, and dependence on them is only increasing.
One in five models has difficulty exiting webcam, facing threats, blackmail, and financial difficulties. Many are returning to the industry because of a desperate situation. Most former webcam models rate their experiences as negative, facing lasting psychological consequences. Contrary to the myth of the ease and safety of webcam work, this area carries serious risks and exploitation, the researchers conclude.
According to psychologist Elizaveta Pavlova, among those webcam models who turned to her for psychological help, there were many girls with borderline personality disorder (violation of personal boundaries and self-esteem).
— According to the research of sex workers (and webcam models can be classified as such), they had one thing in common: in childhood, their parents treated them indifferently, ignoring their emotional needs. Not everyone experienced sexual violence, but 100% had rejection and emotional coldness from their parents. Because of this, girls used to consider themselves insignificant, allowed themselves and their bodies to be treated without respect and care. In addition to the psychological aspects, webcam carries the risks of exposure and blackmail, increasing the anxiety and closeness of the participants," Pavlova said.
Research also shows, the psychologist added, that female sexuality is closely related to emotional contact. Women are rarely ready for sex without an emotional connection. Constant participation in sexual acts or demonstration of sexual behavior without such intimacy leads to alienation from one's own body and a feeling of depersonalization ("the body is not me"), which negatively affects psychological health.
— I don't know, I don't feel unhappy, I've raised my self—esteem with the help of a webcam and I like the attention of men, - says webcam model Olga. — I won't speak for everyone here, but in my social circle, for the most part, everything is fine with everyone. It is unlikely that the industry in Russia will disappear even with severe bans. In general, it would be great if everyone, including us, could honestly do their job without fear and unnecessary problems. Are we doing something bad to someone?
A booming market
According to the CamRank resource, based on estimates from industry analysts, the annual turnover of the adult webcam sector in 2024 reached $5.5 billion, showing an increase of almost three times from $2 billion in 2016.
According to experts, since 2018, the webcam sector has faced a sharp increase in the number of participants. The most noticeable increase was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic: the number of active webcam models increased by about 30% during the lockdown period.
The attendance of the three largest international webcam sites collectively exceeds 1.1 billion visits per month. The average session duration is 12.5 minutes. The most popular of them ranks 49th in terms of traffic among all web sites.
According to the SEMrush platform research for 2024, the market leader in popularity attracts about 432 million monthly visits. It is immediately followed by another large platform, which has an average of 374 million monthly visits.
According to the 2023 data from CamEratus, Russia ranked second in the world in terms of the number of registered video chats with 151,912 accounts out of 714,009, which is 21.28% of the total number of accounts in the world. In total, ten leading countries have 640,093 registered accounts of leading video chats around the world, which is 90%. Moreover, only five of them — Colombia, the Russian Federation, Romania, the Philippines, and the United States control 80% of this market.
The growth of the industry in different countries is uneven. For example, Vietnam grew 13 times in 2021-23, while Colombia made a seven-fold jump in eight years. Russia showed a 12-fold increase in the number of registered accounts from 2015 to 2023.
The models are mostly women, with the main age segment ranging from 18 to 25 years old. Rapid growth rates are observed in emerging markets (for example, in Latin America and Eastern Europe). Countries with lower incomes are more likely to be suppliers of webcam models, while Western and Asian countries represent mostly solvent audiences.
The estimated size of the Russian webcam market has not been officially published, but based on the approximate number of models, average broadcast revenue, and available indirect data, it can be estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of US dollars annually.
From the coffee pot to teledildonics
Webcam (from web camera — network camera) began with a harmless story. In 1991, students at the University of Cambridge in England created the first online camera and pointed it at a coffee machine in one of the laboratories. The students didn't like it when they came to an empty coffee pot, so they decided to monitor it remotely. The broadcast was carried out at a frequency of three frames per minute on a local network, later it was transferred online. It stopped ten years later in 2001.
Three years later, in 1994, video streaming technology suddenly found itself in a completely different field. The Red Light District company from the Netherlands has launched the first online platforms with adult videos using streaming. At the same time, entrepreneurs realized that people were willing to pay to watch girls' videos in real time.
One of the key figures in the nascent webcam was entrepreneur Seth Warshawski (who died under unknown circumstances in October 2024). In 1996, in Seattle, he set up a studio in a rented barn and launched the ClubLove website, which hosted a slideshow broadcast with striptease by paid subscription, and for extra money, the user could contact the selected dancer by phone for sex. Varshavsky was able to successfully expand his business thanks to advanced technologies at that time and high-profile scandals.
The first full-fledged "lifecasting" project was the JenniCam website, opened by Jennifer Ringley, a student from the USA, in 1996. She regularly posted footage from her life (including intimate ones), first for friends, and later for a wide audience. It is worth noting that becoming the first camgirl in history, she also became the first victim of harassment — she was hacked and blackmailed by a group of hackers.
JenniCam inspired dozens of similar projects and became the prototype of many web sites that appeared later. In addition, in the 90s, the first professional studios and platforms began to appear, working mainly with erotic content. The payment for video conferencing reached decent figures — from $3 to $6 per minute. Many users spent impressive amounts, and female models earned from $10-15 to $50 per hour of work.
By the 2000s, webcam had already transformed from a niche entertainment into a fast-growing industry. The first specialized websites, catalogs, and aggregators appeared, for example: VideoSecrets (1996); Streamate, CamContacts, StreamRay (1999); iFriends (1998), which earned more than $300,000 per day on peak days. Webcam services, unlike most other Internet companies of those times, successfully survived the dot-com crash in 2000.
Full-fledged networks with chat services, phone calls and private broadcasts began to form, as well as the first payment systems (for example, CCBill and ePassporte). Early mentions of webcam studios in Russia appeared from 1999-2002, the first specifically named studio was CamCash from St. Petersburg. The pioneers of Russian webcam streaming, Runetki and RusCams, appeared in 2008-09.
With the advent of high-speed Internet, the quality of broadcasts has increased dramatically: HD (720p/1080p), 4K resolution, and virtual reality capabilities have appeared. Websites have set high standards for the appearance of models and studio decorations. Interactivity has become the main monetization tool: interactive sex accessories (teledildonics), personal bots, paid chats and private shows have appeared.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
