Computerization and the deregulation of the telephone industry in the United States and Europe in the 1980s made it possible for companies to provide a variety of services, from banking and insurance to mail order shopping, over the telephone. During the 1980s the telephone rapidly became a major source of income for the sex industry. The mostly male callers to premium rate "fantasy lines" pay by credit card to engage in sexually stimulating and anonymous role playing over the telephone. Some commentators suggested that the fear of AIDS contributed to the popularity of phone sex, which in 1995 generated 45 million dollars of income through calls to "900" numbers—so called because they are normally assigned the prefix 900 in lieu of an area code—in California alone.

Opinion has been divided over whether it is the customer or the operator who is being exploited in the phone sex "relationship...