At the start of June, the British government introduced new coronavirus laws which made it illegal for couples who lived in different homes to have sex indoors or stay overnight. In response, tabloids were quick to call the law a ‘sex ban’ and shortly after, the hashtag #sexban trended on Twitter. This misunderstanding came from the fact that the definition of ‘gathering’ is so wide that it could encompass any kind of human activity, including sex. But how has this influenced the sex habits of UK residents?

According to a survey conducted on 1,000 UK residents by the adult webcam site ImLive, the ‘sex ban’ only made people hornier. The research aimed to see whether citizens had obeyed the new rules and shed some light on their sexual behaviours during lockdown. The findings revealed a clear breach of the rules and showed UK residents are the horniest they’ve been in over 50 years! Here are some of the key findings from the survey that you’ll need to know.

ImLive’s survey revealed that 6.5 per cent of people in the UK have participated in a threesome with their flatmates during lockdown. This comes as an understandable increase as people were forced by law to stay indoors. This, however, didn’t stop them from feeling horny. As Theodore Roosevelt said himself: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you can.”

Yes, you read that right. The survey shows that anal has made an 11.61 per cent resurgence among UK residents since lockdown, with 10 per cent of women trying it for the first time ever. This highlights people’s interest in trying new things while being stuck at home, as 49.69 per cent of respondents reported experimenting with new sexual behaviours.

30.1 per cent of respondents said they were having more sex during lockdown than before. This comes as a surprising statistic just after the government announced the infamous ‘sex ban’.

As it turns out, all good things come with a price, and all good sex comes with a risk of injury. During lockdown, 4.5 per cent of UK residents have reported having a sex-related injury. Other statistics from ImLive’s survey showed that 20 per cent of women were planning to get their freak on once lockdown ended, and 50 per cent of UK men didn’t consider it cheating if their partner attended a live webcam session with other people.

All in all, the UK lockdown and the ‘sex ban’ that resulted from it both seem like good influences on UK residents and their sexual habits. A little experimenting never hurt nobody—sex-related injuries put aside.

The rise of the teledildonics industry, also known as connected sexual pleasure products, creates new fun ways for us to pleasure ourselves and our partners, with inventions such as vibrating Wi-Fi-enabled butt plugs and webcam-connected dildos. But teledildonics, just like everything else in our modern age it seems, are another privacy nightmare ridden with security flaws. Since 2018, there have been a number of reported hacked sex toys, and the most recent case makes me wonder: should we go back to good old non-connected sex toys just to avoid them getting hacked mid-sesh?

Privacy counts across all aspects of life, especially as we live surrounded by and depending on technology. That’s why, when it comes to smart sex toys, our privacy should count even more. According to Mozilla, an internet-connected device (sex toys included) has five minimum security standards: it must use encrypted communications, have automatic security updates, require a strong password, have a system in place for vulnerability management, and, finally, have a privacy policy that is easily accessible. I don’t know about you, but I’ve personally never checked for these five conditions in a sex toy before.

Evidently, I’m not the only one. Most recently, a woman had her butt plug hacked and controlled while she was presenting on stage. It later turned out to be a stunt designed to demonstrate to the audience just how susceptible these devices are to getting hacked. This incident sparked a frenzy as people feared it would happen to them. Not only would having your vibrator hacked be very strange, but it would also be done without your consent—just like the data-collection techniques that are used by Facebook, Alexa, and most technologies.

In 2017, a man called Alex Lomas walked around Berlin and had to use only his phone in order to pull up a list of Bluetooth discoverable Lovense Hush butt plugs, ready to be hacked, just to manifest how easy it was. Last year, SEC Consultants looked at sex toys from Vibratissimo and demonstrated how they could be broken into by hackers not only to “remotely pleasure” people, but also to access owners’ account details. Even more worrying, a Wi-Fi-connected dildo’s internal camera was found to be easily accessible.

What can be said about hacking sex toys and consent laws? Because these are quite uncharted territories, we don’t know just yet what to do when someone hacks a sex toy or its data. In some countries, such as the U.S., laws that define what constitutes sexual harassment or assault vary from state to state. In many countries, the law is still vague about the definition of assault and sexual harassment. In the U.K., sexual harassment is defined as: “unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature which violates your dignity, makes you feel intimidated, degraded or humiliated, and creates a hostile or offensive environment.” The lack of precision surrounding sexual harassment and assault laws prevents us from taking concrete action in the event of a sex-toy hack. Worse yet, we don’t even know whether our data can be hacked into and stolen in the first place.

While the aim of this article isn’t to inspire anxiety and ignite a global wanking paranoia, it should force you to sit back and ask yourself, “What are the privacy implications of using a Bluetooth-connected sex toy?” Last time we ignored such concerns we ended up with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Trump as the President of the U.S., and a moronic Brexit. Even though hacking sex toys isn’t yet defined as assault or sexual harassment, it may very well be regarded so once lawmakers start tackling the issue. In the meantime, maybe it’s worth dusting off the old non-connected sex toy hidden under your bed and relieve the stress with some alone time, if you know what I mean.