Toothing Still Sounds Like A Hoax

from the try-again-in-a-year dept

Fri, Mar 10th 2006 9:34am — Carlo Longino

The practice of "toothing" -- basically finding sex partners over Bluetooth -- got a lot of press a couple of years ago, before being exposed as a hoax a year later. We noted when the stories first came out that it sounded like it could be a self-fulfilling hoax: one that was made up to begin with, but which the inevitable media attention would make real. Here we are two years later and Reuters -- which got suckered by the original story -- says toothing has taken off, at least in Italy and Dubai. Well, sort of -- it talks about how people are sending messages to one another, but doesn't make any mention of whether they're doing it strictly to find sex. Quite the opposite, in fact: the Italians seem to like to chat, while the news from Dubai comes from a seven-month-old BBC article on how young people in the UAE use phones to find dates. The whole supposed point of toothing was to use Bluetooth to find strangers for immediate, anonymous sex -- so it looks once again like Reuters' claims about toothing are, well, toothless.

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John Lambert (profile), 10 Mar 2006 @ 11:13am

By any other name...
No one would read their article if they just referred to it as "phoning".
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TriZz, 10 Mar 2006 @ 11:47am

blah...
"tooth" and "sex" should not be used in the same sentence.
OH YEEEAHHHH! TOOTH ME BABY!!!
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- Sea Man, 10 Mar 2006 @ 12:05pm
  
  Re: blah...
  Isn't the the number one rule "no teeth"?
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  - Shoal Creek, 10 Mar 2006 @ 2:21pm
    
    Re: blah...
    Sea Man, I would contradict what you said, but it would involve too many personal details ;D
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  - greg, 11 Mar 2006 @ 1:46pm
    
    Re: Re: blah...
    teeth is bad...no teeth is worse
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Paul, 10 Mar 2006 @ 5:58pm

Reasons it seems unplausable
This has to be a hoax just based on the was bluetooth works.

In order for phone A to send phone B data over bluetooth, the two have to "pair up", that is, negotiate a connection.
Phone A has to be broadcasting its bluetooth ID so that Phone B can "see" Phone A in a list of nearby connections (Similar to SSID in wireless networks)

It is possible for a device to be constantly broadcasting this ID (which would be necsisary for this kind of contact to happen) but HIGHLY unlikely due to the ammount of battery drainage that would occur.

My own phone only broadcasts the ID for 15 seconds at a time, so if I wanted to make myself contactable I would have to sit there pushing the button over and over and over again, and then my phone would prolly die after a half hour.
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michael, 11 Mar 2006 @ 8:43am

do you get blue teeth from lack of?
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Chris H, 13 Mar 2006 @ 8:45am

I think I might have even seen this in a news broadcast.
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