Amateur Pornography is adult content created, normally, by the participants of the film. They can range in number of participants from one (a solo act), two (a couple), three (a threesome), or more (gangbang, orgy or swingers). It is described as amateur either because of their lack of experience behind and in front of the camera, or because they are performing without pay.
Amateur pornography came to prominence during the 80’s as video cameras decreased in price for commercial use, as well as the technology has changed allowing people to record directly to VHS and play it back, and subsequently copy the tape on a VCR.
When the Internet began, amateur porn saw another rise in popularity. Also as digital filming technology such as personal camcorders, phones, photo cameras and webcams all now having video shooting as a standard. People and couples could now film and quite easily upload their exploits onto the web. Amateur Porn has allowed several performers to be ‘found’ by submitting their videos into talent agencies, some having since turned professional.
With the advent of web 2.0, amateurs can now make their money by uploading their video’s on adult tube sites and collecting revenue by charging $1 per 60 seconds of a webcam feed. This has allowed female and male performers alternative routes to making money in the adult industry without becoming professionals.
The increase of the net has also changed the perception of both filming and watching amateur pornography. Tube sites specializing in pornographic content have an average of 4-5 million unique hits per day, and memberships in the 20-30 million count. The combination of free porn, as well as amateur’s uploading their pornography on these tube sites have led to a drastic decline to print and DVD sales of porn, proving that amateur pornography is a vastly growing part of the adult film industry.
With technology of cameras in cell-phones, known as camera phones, the genre has expanded again and users are sending pictures or videos of themselves to their partners, this is known as ‘sexting’. It can however be dangerous for several reasons, first it the ease to forward the pictures to others at the embarrassment of the participant, as well as legal problems as underage teenagers taking photos of themselves constitutes as child pornography.
Amateur Sex Tapes have lead to the similar genre of Celebrity Sex Tapes, which have launched a number of careers of semi-famous to featuring prominent celebrities.
