   a sex shop or erotic shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as vibrators, lingerie, clothing, pornography, and other related products. the world's first sex shop was opened in 1962 by beate uhse ag in flensburg, west germany, and sex shops can now be found in many countries. many sex shops also trade over the internet. sex shops are part of the sex industry. in most jurisdictions, sex shops are regulated by law, with access not permitted to minors, the age depending on local law. some jurisdictions prohibit sex shops and the merchandise they sell. in some jurisdictions that permit it, they may also show pornographic movies in private video booths, or have private striptease or peep shows. also an adult movie theater may be attached. near borders of countries with different laws regarding sex shops, shops on the more liberal side tend to be popular with customers from the other side, especially if importing the purchased materials by customers to their own country, and possessing them, is legal or tolerated. there are also many online sex shops selling a variety of adult content such as toys, fetish wear etc. these types of shop are often favoured by the consumer as they have less overheads and can be perused within the comfort of the home. their discreetness is also appealing to some. ==regional differences== ===united kingdom=== thumb|right|by law, uk sex shops must not show goods in the window. almost all licensed adult stores in the uk are forbidden from having their wares in open shop windows under the indecent displays act 1981, which means often the shop fronts are boarded up or covered in posters. a warning sign must be clearly shown at the entrance to the store, and no sex articles (for example, pornography or sex toys) should be visible from the street. however, lingerie, non-offensive covers of adult material, etc. may be shown depending on the license conditions of the local authority. the video recordings act 1984 introduced the r18-rated classification for videos that are only available in licensed sex shops. no customer can be under eighteen years old. the ann summers chain of lingerie and sex toy shops won the right to advertise for shop assistants in job centres, which was originally banned under restrictions on what advertising could be carried out by the sex industry, in 2003.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2999892.stm in 2007, a northern ireland sex shop was denied a license by the [[belfast cit
Sex_shops