S. Korean women protest rampant spycam pornography - CGTN

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Tens of thousands of S. Korean women turned out on Saturday to demand harsher penalties for anyone caught making secret spycam videos, holding one of the country's biggest-ever female-only protests amid a huge hike in incidents.

So-called spycam videos have become increasingly common in the country, where men caught secretly filming women – in schools, workplaces, toilets and changing rooms – make headlines on a daily basis.

Distributing pornography is illegal in S. Korea, but such videos are widely shared on porn sites and Internet chatrooms or used in adverts for websites promoting prostitution and gambling.

Members of Seoul's "hidden camera-hunting" squad inspect a women's bathroom stall to find secret cameras at a museum in Seoul, August 18, 2016. /VCG Photo

The protesters at the rally held in central Seoul held banners reading "My life is not your porn" and "We're humans, not a sexual object for your sick fantasy."

Organizers said around 55,000 women took part in the demonstration, while police put the estimate at about 20,000.

Most of the protesters were teenagers or women in their 20s – a demographic seen as the main target of the spycam epidemic.

S. Korea takes pride in its tech prowess, which includes ultra-fast broadband and cutting-edge smartphones. But these advances have also given rise to an army of tech-savvy peeping Toms in the country.

The number of spycam crimes surged from about 1,100 in 2010 to more than 6,500 last year, but most offenders were fined or given suspended jail terms described by many women's rights groups as a mere slap on the wrist.

The offenders – mostly men – have included college professors, school teachers, doctors, church pastors, public servants, police officers and even a court judge.

Such practices have become so rampant that all manufacturers of smartphones sold in the country are required to ensure the cameras on their devices make a loud shutter sound when taking photos.

But many use special smartphone apps that disable the mandatory sound or use high-tech spy cameras hidden inside eye glasses, lighters, watches, car keys and even neckties.

Source(s): AFP