South Korea 'spycam porn': Government must regulate camera sales to halt epidemic, campaigners say

The South Korean government should regulate the sale of “spy cameras” to tackle an epidemic of voyeurs filming women in public toilets, campaigners have said.

Authorities in Seoul have pledged to hire thousands of staff to conduct daily checks on toilets in a bid to crack down on the crime, but a victims’ group warned the plans did not go far enough.

Police have struggled to halt a trend of perpetrators using tiny, hidden cameras to film women undressing without their consent. The spycam videos, known as “molka”, are often shared or sold to illicit porn sites without victims’ consent or knowledge.

More than 6,000 cases were reported last year – around a threefold increase from 2012 – but the true number is thought to be far higher. The vast majority of perpetrators are male and nearly 90 per cent of victims are women.

Tens of thousands of women have taken to the streets in recent months to urge authorities to crack down on the crime, which they say can be deeply traumatic to victims.

In response, Seoul’s city government announced the number of workers deployed to uncover hidden cameras at the city’s 20,554 public toilets would be boosted from 50 to 8,000.

But campaigners have voiced doubts that the move would be effective in curbing the crime, arguing it was more important to overhaul both the law on hidden cameras and change attitudes towards women.

“What is imperative is to regulate the distribution of spy cameras, rather than what is being planned,” said You Seung-jin, vice-president of the Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Centre.

Ms You, whose Seoul-based organisation offers legal aid to victims of spycam crimes, said the phenomenon showed the country remained deeply patriarchal despite economic progress over the last few decades.

“Misogyny is prevalent here and women are often treated as sexual objects,” she added. “What we need is to educate people that this is cyber-sexual violence – it is not their porn.”

The current taskforce of 50 people has failed to find a single hidden camera despite a spike in the crime, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Officials say it was hard to tackle the crime, as the tiny cameras are often removed quickly by the perpetrators after being installed in public places.

Last year South Korea ranked 118 out of 144 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, which scored the country particularly poorly for the economic participation and opportunity for women.