Toothing
Encyclopedia
Toothing was originally a hoax
claim that Bluetooth
-enabled mobile phone
s or PDAs
were being used to arrange random sexual encounters
, perpetrated as a prank on the media who reported it. The hoax was created by Ste Curran
, then Editor at Large at the gaming magazine Edge, and ex-journalist Simon Byron
. They based it on the two concepts dogging
and bluejacking
that were popular at the time. The creators started a forum in March 2004 where they wrote fake news articles about toothing with other members and then sent them off to well-known Internet-based news services. The point of the hoax was to "highlight how journalists are happy to believe something is true without necessarily checking the facts". Dozens of news organizations, including BBC News
, Wired News
, and The Independent
thought the toothing story was real and printed it. On April 4, 2005, Curran and Byron admitted that the whole thing was a hoax. There have, however, been real Bluetooth dating devices to hit the market since.
, Bluetooth
is an open
wireless
protocol for exchanging data over short distances from mobile devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and personal computers. Originally, Bluetooth was only intended for wireless exchanging of files between these devices, but it was later discovered that it could also be used for sexual intentions. The hoax concept of toothing started around March 2004 in the form of a forum designed by Ste Curran
, then Editor at Large at games magazine Edge, and ex-journalist Simon Byron
. Toothing was conceived as a merger of the two concepts dogging
with bluejacking
, both of which were frequently mentioned in the UK media around that time. Byron said he and Curran were "idly messaging about the Stan Collymore
dogging scandal, and how this stupid sexual buzzword had (apparently) come from nowhere," when they came up with the concept. "We wondered if we could create our own. We wonder a lot of things, and rarely push them past concept, because we’re as collectively creative as we are frustratingly idle. This particularly concept was simple enough to outstrip the temptations of grinning, saying 'Yeah!', and wandering off to see what was on [television]." Several newspapers have also compared toothing to dogging.
In toothing, a Bluetooth device is used to find other Bluetooth enabled devices within a close distance (on trains or buses, for example), and then send the expression "toothing?" as an initial greeting, letting the person with the enabled Bluetooth device know you are looking for sex. If sending of text messages via Bluetooth is not possible, the Bluetooth name of the mobile phone can be set to "toothing?" or something else to indicate interest. The pair of hoaxers wrote fake news articles on the forum about toothing and sent them off well-known Internet-based news services. Byron said he had to write "Penthouse
-letters-page style sexual adventure stories" for articles and interviews with the media. The point with hoax was, according to Byron, to "highlight how journalists are happy to believe something is true without necessarily checking the facts."
and "many papers read that and followed up, broadsheet and tabloid, regional, national, all over the planet." One of the hoaxers made an appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live
, and a member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
reportedly declare his interest in toothing as a way of meeting women. The couple also received offers to license official toothing merchandise such as sex lines, websites, and mobile-phone software. Dozens of news organizations, including BBC
, Wired News
, Infosyncworld, and The Independent
fell for the story and printed it. The Guardian
also printed the story, but the article's author suspected it to be an April Fools' Day
prank. The BBC wrote in their article:
University of Bath
psychologist Linda Blair said the practice of toothing is down to the human need to take risks: "I think we protect ourselves too much in modern society, and risk is a human need. We need motivation. In some ways this is a tame way of picking people up, it's almost a natural follow up from randomly picking people's names out of the phone book. It's voluntary at all stages, and has choice. As long as that's there and it's legal, then people should be able to do what they want." Sue Peters of the Terrence Higgins Trust
worried that anonymous sex made possible by toothing would cause an increase of sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia in the United Kingdom. University of Amsterdam sociologist Albert Benschop researched the hoax. He said toothing is "the next logical step" in dating and that the "old game is just adapting to new times". Benschop added that toothing is "just like picking up people in bars but without the silly time-consuming conventions of decorum that people are obliged to keep to these days. This is much more direct. You both know what you want." He also sees it as a way for people "to satisfy their need for intimacy. As long as it helps people out of loneliness and gives them more to enjoy in life, I think it's a very good development."
The term "toothing" was included in the 2006 version of The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. It was describes as an "anonymous casual sexual activity with any partner arranged over Bluetooth radio technology enabled mobile phones." In addition, toothing is listed in the Sex Slang dictionary, authored by Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, with an explanation similar to the one in the New Partridge Dictionary. Toothing was referenced in an episode of the American television series CSI: Miami
, called "Killer Date", that aired in the United States on April 18, 2005.
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
claim that Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
-enabled mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s or PDAs
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
were being used to arrange random sexual encounters
Human sexual behavior
Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons...
, perpetrated as a prank on the media who reported it. The hoax was created by Ste Curran
Ste Curran
Stephen Curran is a British video game journalist, presenter, author, and game designer.He was an editor at Edge magazine, also writing under the name RedEye...
, then Editor at Large at the gaming magazine Edge, and ex-journalist Simon Byron
Simon Byron
Simon Byron is a British video game presenter, PR representative and author.He is a presenter on Resonance FM's video game radio show and podcast One Life Left....
. They based it on the two concepts dogging
Dogging (sexual slang)
Dogging is a British English euphemism for engaging in sexual acts in a public or semi-public place or watching others doing so. There may be more than two participants; both group sex and gang banging can be included. As observation is encouraged, voyeurism and exhibitionism are closely associated...
and bluejacking
Bluejacking
Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or laptop computers, sending a vCard which typically contains a message in the name field to another bluetooth enabled device via the OBEX protocol.Bluetooth has a very...
that were popular at the time. The creators started a forum in March 2004 where they wrote fake news articles about toothing with other members and then sent them off to well-known Internet-based news services. The point of the hoax was to "highlight how journalists are happy to believe something is true without necessarily checking the facts". Dozens of news organizations, including BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, Wired News
Wired News
Wired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Wired News was owned by Lycos not long after the split, until Condé Nast purchased Wired News on July 11, 2006...
, and The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
thought the toothing story was real and printed it. On April 4, 2005, Curran and Byron admitted that the whole thing was a hoax. There have, however, been real Bluetooth dating devices to hit the market since.
Conception
Devised by Swedish telecommunication company EricssonEricsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
, Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
is an open
Open standard
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....
wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
protocol for exchanging data over short distances from mobile devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and personal computers. Originally, Bluetooth was only intended for wireless exchanging of files between these devices, but it was later discovered that it could also be used for sexual intentions. The hoax concept of toothing started around March 2004 in the form of a forum designed by Ste Curran
Ste Curran
Stephen Curran is a British video game journalist, presenter, author, and game designer.He was an editor at Edge magazine, also writing under the name RedEye...
, then Editor at Large at games magazine Edge, and ex-journalist Simon Byron
Simon Byron
Simon Byron is a British video game presenter, PR representative and author.He is a presenter on Resonance FM's video game radio show and podcast One Life Left....
. Toothing was conceived as a merger of the two concepts dogging
Dogging (sexual slang)
Dogging is a British English euphemism for engaging in sexual acts in a public or semi-public place or watching others doing so. There may be more than two participants; both group sex and gang banging can be included. As observation is encouraged, voyeurism and exhibitionism are closely associated...
with bluejacking
Bluejacking
Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or laptop computers, sending a vCard which typically contains a message in the name field to another bluetooth enabled device via the OBEX protocol.Bluetooth has a very...
, both of which were frequently mentioned in the UK media around that time. Byron said he and Curran were "idly messaging about the Stan Collymore
Stan Collymore
Stanley Victor "Stan" Collymore is an English football pundit and former footballer, who played from 1990 until 2001. He held the British transfer record when he moved from Nottingham Forest to Liverpool for £8.5 million in 1995 and was capped three times at senior level by the England...
dogging scandal, and how this stupid sexual buzzword had (apparently) come from nowhere," when they came up with the concept. "We wondered if we could create our own. We wonder a lot of things, and rarely push them past concept, because we’re as collectively creative as we are frustratingly idle. This particularly concept was simple enough to outstrip the temptations of grinning, saying 'Yeah!', and wandering off to see what was on [television]." Several newspapers have also compared toothing to dogging.
In toothing, a Bluetooth device is used to find other Bluetooth enabled devices within a close distance (on trains or buses, for example), and then send the expression "toothing?" as an initial greeting, letting the person with the enabled Bluetooth device know you are looking for sex. If sending of text messages via Bluetooth is not possible, the Bluetooth name of the mobile phone can be set to "toothing?" or something else to indicate interest. The pair of hoaxers wrote fake news articles on the forum about toothing and sent them off well-known Internet-based news services. Byron said he had to write "Penthouse
Penthouse (magazine)
Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International...
-letters-page style sexual adventure stories" for articles and interviews with the media. The point with hoax was, according to Byron, to "highlight how journalists are happy to believe something is true without necessarily checking the facts."
Spread in media
The concept of toothing quickly reached a large audience, even in countries outside of the UK. Curran and Byron said they kept a record from the start of all their mentions in the media, "but there were soon too many to record in full." They agreed to do an interview with The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
and "many papers read that and followed up, broadsheet and tabloid, regional, national, all over the planet." One of the hoaxers made an appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
, and a member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
reportedly declare his interest in toothing as a way of meeting women. The couple also received offers to license official toothing merchandise such as sex lines, websites, and mobile-phone software. Dozens of news organizations, including BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Wired News
Wired News
Wired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Wired News was owned by Lycos not long after the split, until Condé Nast purchased Wired News on July 11, 2006...
, Infosyncworld, and The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
fell for the story and printed it. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
also printed the story, but the article's author suspected it to be an April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day is celebrated in different countries around the world on April 1 every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when many people play all kinds of jokes and foolishness...
prank. The BBC wrote in their article:
One practitioner is Jon, a "Toother" living near London.
"One morning I received an anonymous text message via bluetooth," he told BBC News.
"I didn't understand what had happened, but that evening I did some research and worked out how to send my own."
The pair started to exchange messages on a train station platform; messages which got gradually more flirty.
"Eventually she asked me if I fancied a quickie in the toilets at the station we were travelling to.
"It happened, but I never saw her again."
Since that day Jon - who claims to have had Toothing success five times - has set up a website dedicated to the practice but he admits it takes a degree of perseverance.
Aftermath
On April 4, 2005, the creators of the forum admitted that the whole thing was a hoax. Though the concept of toothing is possible, the hoaxers never intended for it to turn into something real. The couple said: "It's like going into a crowded nightclub, throwing a brick at the dance floor with a love letter attached, and hoping that the person it hits will agree to sleep with you." When announcing the hoax, Curran and Byron reassured that toothing was nothing more than a practical joke gone too far and despite all the articles in newspapers and tabloids, "no one has ever ever, ever toothed." Shanna Petersen, a sexologist, disagreed with the hoaxers' statement that no-one has ever toothed: "It's simple, doesn't take a lot of guts and rejection is nowhere as personal. Of course it's popular. Show people a new way through which they have a chance to have more sex and they'll do it. No matter how much effort goes into it or how meager the results." Multiple forums were in fact created throughout Europe, Asia and America within months of the original post of toothing. People signed up to the forums looking for good locations in their area to tooth, and to share their toothing stories with other members. There have later been real Bluetooth dating devices to hit the market.University of Bath
University of Bath
The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....
psychologist Linda Blair said the practice of toothing is down to the human need to take risks: "I think we protect ourselves too much in modern society, and risk is a human need. We need motivation. In some ways this is a tame way of picking people up, it's almost a natural follow up from randomly picking people's names out of the phone book. It's voluntary at all stages, and has choice. As long as that's there and it's legal, then people should be able to do what they want." Sue Peters of the Terrence Higgins Trust
Terrence Higgins Trust
Terrence Higgins Trust is a British charity that campaigns on various issues related to AIDS and HIV. In particular, the charity aims to reduce the spread of HIV and promote good sexual health ; to provide services on a national and local level to people with, affected by, or at risk of...
worried that anonymous sex made possible by toothing would cause an increase of sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia in the United Kingdom. University of Amsterdam sociologist Albert Benschop researched the hoax. He said toothing is "the next logical step" in dating and that the "old game is just adapting to new times". Benschop added that toothing is "just like picking up people in bars but without the silly time-consuming conventions of decorum that people are obliged to keep to these days. This is much more direct. You both know what you want." He also sees it as a way for people "to satisfy their need for intimacy. As long as it helps people out of loneliness and gives them more to enjoy in life, I think it's a very good development."
The term "toothing" was included in the 2006 version of The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. It was describes as an "anonymous casual sexual activity with any partner arranged over Bluetooth radio technology enabled mobile phones." In addition, toothing is listed in the Sex Slang dictionary, authored by Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, with an explanation similar to the one in the New Partridge Dictionary. Toothing was referenced in an episode of the American television series CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami
CSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
, called "Killer Date", that aired in the United States on April 18, 2005.