As India is moving towards a lockdown to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the otherwise discreet services for "paid fun on webcam" seem to be flourishing on social networking platforms, particularly on Instagram.
According to information provided on some of these pages, they ask “interested” people to drop a direct message (DM) in their Instagram inbox – where one party digitally pays the required amount and the other party, according to their settlement, shares naked pictures or nude video calls.
On Monday, the official Instagram account of Bollywood actor Vikrant Massey was spotted following a naughty profile on the platform – called Molly Sims.
32-year old Vikrant recently starred opposite top actress Deepika Padukone in a film promoting women empowerment called “Chhapaak”. In December last year, he also got engaged to beau Sheetal Thakur in a private ceremony in India.
Fun-on-Cam services seem to be flourishing on Instagram in quarantine?
— Radhika Parashar (@radhika_says) March 23, 2020
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.@masseysahib pic.twitter.com/Iula5v3fe4
According to a screenshot of one such page obtained by Sputnik, the cost of the services is per hour or per picture-based, within a range of approx. $2 to $21 (INR 200-1,600).
While for Bollywood figures these could be just some of the accounts that they follow, the reality is that if one types “paid services” in the search-bar on Instagram in India, a list of profiles drop down.
Probably for fear of Instagram’s policies that are against the promotion of inappropriate content via its app, most of these accounts are locked and require personal request acceptance from the admin in order to “have some fun” – as the profiles put up on its bios.
At times of social distancing and quarantine due to the coronavirus, such services could be doing secretly well on social networking platforms - the only place left for singles to casually mingle.
Ever since the first case of the coronavirus or COVID-19 was detected in India on 30 January, there has been a steady increase of affected persons, which now stands at 390 cases, including 41 foreign nationals. India has also reported seven deaths, while 24 infected persons have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.
