Unemployed Techies Getting Snatched Up by the Adult Entertainment Industry

M. Christian
5 Min Read

Proof sex doesn’t just sell but is actively hiring as well

A surprising number of laid-off technology-sector employees are not just finding new jobs but, as Forbes reports, often considerably higher-paying ones in the adult entertainment industry.

Specifically, landing positions relating to keeping customers safe and potentially ruinous digital intrusions at bay.  

Danny Veiga of Chadix, an AI-powered, SEO-content-generating software platform, says in the same article that we might be witnessing a significant shift in the technology-related job market: “Major content platforms require advanced cybersecurity, AI-driven content moderation, and cloud infrastructure management, leading to a steady demand for experienced IT professionals.” 

Veiga used the example of an ex-software engineer who found a new and far more profitable career administering servers belonging to an online adult content provider.

Work hard for the money

For the sake of context, some of the other unexpected industries technology specialists have been flocking to include aerospace, traditional trades such as HVAC maintenance and welding, healthcare, freelance work, and non-adult industry cybersecurity.

Though attempting to allay fears that artificial intelligence technology could soon leave skilled workers on the unemployment line, the Forbes article doesn’t give much info on why it shouldn’t.  

RECOMMENDED READ: A Not-So-Happy Ending? Researchers Say AI May Throw Adult Entertainment Industry For A Loop

Unlike a more alarming Caper article suggests that some fifteen different occupations could be rendered obsolete. However, most don’t seem to require extensive training or years of hands-on experience. 

Takin’ care of business

The adult entertainment industry’s steady rise, showing hardly any sign of imminent abatement, isn’t exactly headline news.  

For example, The Business Research Company cites a respectable 9% growth rate that will lead to a one hundred and one billion dollar market share by 2029.  

While AI may or may not take a bite out of the industry’s labor pool, it’s arguable that even if it does make a percentage of jobs obsolete, the adult content business will always need qualified technicians to do everything from ensuring sites are secure to caring, feeding, and coding all those ever-increasingly sophisticated, machine learning systems.

Take this job and—

Despite the obvious need for qualified people, adult industry employment might have quite a few potentially career-harming downsides, including even being associated with it. 

Several commenters on The Workplace said it’d be a scarlet letter that’d follow anyone remotely connected to it: 

I’m a liberal and I personally would be put off by knowing you worked for that kind of company. It’s like working for a tobacco company or teaching call center employees how to deny health insurance claims.

Another suggests hiding any involvement:

No one needs to know that the websites are adult sites. Your resume should say “website development: content and media distribution”. In the interview, “Small-scale media distribution” or any other euphemism you can manage. Presentation, presentation, presentation. Unless the firm’s name carries anything remotely resembling the 3X, it’s a circumstance you should be able to manage.

On the plus side, others take a more professional approach:

Yes, working in the adult industry in any capacity will limit your future career options. There will always be someone who will make an assumption about your morality based on that. The same also applies to working for the military. Or Big Pharma. Or in gambling. Or banking. Or law. Or insurance. And so that list goes on.

Working for the weekend

As long as capitalism rules the roost, forcing people to work in order to survive—and the adult business can’t keep booming without capable, tech-savvy employees—then everything is, if not right, then at least not quite as bad as it could be.

Still, the situation could be improved by financial institutions, government services, laws, and lawyers—as well as society in general—could finally accept that work is work, whether it’s healing the sick, raising or tearing down buildings, fixing or selling cars, or maintaining a site chock full of explicit videos.

Image Sources: Depositphotos

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M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex. Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.” Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian. As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2. M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise. Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex. If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro. M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.