Toothing Still Sounds Like A Hoax
from the try-again-in-a-year dept
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.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
By any other name...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
blah...
OH YEEEAHHHH! TOOTH ME BABY!!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: blah...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: blah...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Reasons it seems unplausable
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: blah...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]