PARIS -- Sex by computer has arrived in France and the government is helping to pay for it.
Take a home computer the government will provide free, dial the number 3615, type in one of several special codes and you can talk dirty to a multitude of people for a small fee.
Some people make dates. Others simply exchange erotic messages. There are reports the system has been used for prostitution.
One 35-year-old Nice woman found a man she liked by exchanging computer messages with him, and they agreed to a date. Her new friend turned out to be a multiple sex offender. She told police she was held captive, raped and tortured for several days before escaping.
It all started in 1979 when the government introduced the world's most modern home computer service, the Minitel.
Anyone with a telephone can have a Minitel computer unit. It doesn't cost anything. The state-run Post, Telegraph and Telecommunications agency makes its money by charging for use of the Minitel on an hourly basis.
Nearly 2 million Minitels are in service nationwide, and the PTT says message services represent nearly a fourth of the system's traffic.
Thousands are dialing into the sexy message traffic. It's rather like a C.B. radio without static, but no holds are barred on what words can be used.
One never uses his or her real name. A sexy substitute is preferred. So people find someone interesting on the list of names like Nirvana, Porsche or Leathersilk and become erotic pen pals by leaving a message. Another list details people who give their attributes, like:
'Nadine, 17, would love to be tortured.'
'People talk together at first, asking 'what do you like to do, where do you live, would you like to go out tonight, can I have your phone number?' That's the way it gets started,' said one Minitel user.
A Paris newspaper, Le Quotidien, said it discovered the Minitel was being used for prostitution and by gay men looking for young boys.
'A true scandal,' griped Le Quotidien.
The PTT, meantime, is profiting. The computer costs about $10 an hour to use, and more than half of that goes to the service, the rest to the utility.
With a Minitel one can reserve air flights and hotels, check the weather, the news, have a virtual library of information at the fingertips and engage in computer conversations with politicians.
Computer sex seemed a natural progression in a country where posters of nude women line the streets and porno movies are shown on the government-controlled cable television channel.
But the powers that be are beginning to debate whether the Minitel was intended so people could report things such as: 'I'm blonde, sexy, looking for woman or couple.'
The PTT has served notice that it may cool off red-hot message services with names like 'Aline' and 'Eros.' It said it was 'extremely concerned by the abusive turn' in the use of the Minitel 'for prostitution and the strike against good morals.'
A commission is due to report in about a month on what changes may be needed.
'There will be no spying' on intimate messages, said a PTT official. 'But it is possible that if we are informed by users or through texts that give details of how to contact people, our regional directors will take it up with the police by sending a letter to the courts telling them where to find the source of the messages.'
This has raised the issue of freedom of expression.
'We cannot let this instrument of exchanges be hijacked,' said Jean-Gabriel Frede, head of the message service at the Nouvel Observateur magazine.
He said if there is prostitution involved, it is on a small scale and not professional.
'There are always a few people on the make, and a few Janes looking for a muscular Tarzan, but nothing is forcing Tarzan to answer Jane,' he said.
Some people say the services enable shy people to release pent-up frustrations.
'When you use the Minitel, nobody knows your name. You are anonymous,' said Jean-Philippe Delestre, spokesman for Direct Democracy, a Minitel service company in which participants can hold conversations with politicians.
'Maybe shy people -- or crazy people -- use it to say whatever they want. It's a way to liberate themselves. Maybe that's it. But it'
