['Secret Camera' Heaven] Subway, Restroom, Library, Changing Room... There Is No Safe Zone

Illegal Filming Occurs Frequently Not Only in Public Places but Also in Private Spaces
Despite Harsher Penalties... Online Molka Crimes Persist

[Asia Economy Reporters Byungdon Yoo and Gyumin Oh] Former police officer A secretly installed a hidden camera in the unisex restroom on the second floor of a district police station under Cheongju Cheongwon Police Station from mid-November last year and illegally filmed a female colleague. The hidden camera was discovered by the female colleague on December 16 last year. A, who held the rank of sergeant, was dismissed on the 29th of the same month, and Chief Judge Nam Jun-woo of the Criminal Division 4 at Cheongju District Court sentenced A to two years in prison.

Earlier this month, a public official in the Daejeon area was caught by police on charges of illegally filming a woman’s body on the subway. Public official B, who worked at an administrative welfare center in Daejeon, was arrested by police in May near a subway station in Daejeon for filming parts of women’s bodies without consent using a mobile phone. Police also found dozens of photos illegally taken of female colleagues’ bodies from A’s mobile phone.

There is no longer a safe zone from hidden cameras. Crimes involving hidden cameras are frequently occurring not only in public places such as subways and restrooms but also in private locations like lodging facilities and homes.

The range of targets for illegal filming has expanded so widely that anyone can worry about hidden cameras. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s subway police unit, from 2020 to April this year, about 2 years and 4 months, a total of 5,284 crimes occurred on Seoul subway lines 1 through 8, with sex-related crimes accounting for 1,751 cases (33.1%), the largest proportion. Except for lines 1 and 6, sex crimes outnumbered theft on all other lines.

Since the publicization of illegal filming issues such as the 2019 ‘Burning Sun Gate’ and the ‘Webhard Cartel’ involving WeDisk, civil and criminal liabilities for illegal filming have been strengthened. The Sexual Violence Punishment Act revised in 2020 raised the maximum prison sentence for those who film the body parts of subjects from 5 to 7 years and increased the maximum fine from 30 million won to 50 million won. The Ministry of Justice also announced a legislative amendment in April to the Civil Act to broadly recognize mental damages caused by personality rights violations such as illegal filming.

Singer Jung Joon-young, who was arrested on charges of illegally filming and distributing videos, is being transferred to a transport vehicle on the 29th at Jongno Police Station in Seoul to be sent to the prosecution. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

According to the Ministry of Justice’s 2020 Sexual Crime White Paper, the number of illegal filming cases, which was 412 in 2013, surged about sixfold to 2,388 in 2018, showing a rapidly increasing trend. Recently in Daegu, an entrance exam academy instructor was arrested for installing a camera in a women’s restroom and illegally filming. Investigations revealed that more than 10 victims, including students, were affected. In Anyang City, Gyeonggi Province, an elementary school principal who installed a hidden camera in the female staff restroom at his school was sentenced to two years in prison, a verdict that was finalized.

Victims of hidden camera crimes do not suffer harm just once. Illegal footage spreads online and causes secondary and tertiary damages to victims. Numerous illegal filming videos taken in public places as well as lodging facilities are uploaded on various pornographic sites. Many illegal videos target minors in school uniforms, and posts falsely labeled as ‘friend tips’ containing daily photos of acquaintances with false information are also frequently found. Most pornographic sites hosting illegal footage have servers overseas, making police investigations difficult. Recently, the secretive trading of illegal footage online through encrypted emails and cryptocurrencies has made it difficult to identify victims.

Accordingly, the government has enacted the “Nth Room Prevention Act” (amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act, etc.) and prepared a joint digital sex crime eradication plan involving 11 ministries. It mandates technical and managerial measures to filter illegal footage for value-added telecommunications service providers and webhard operators with annual sales exceeding 1 billion won or an average daily user count of over 100,000 in the last three months of the previous year. Since illegal footage is not limited to ‘pornographic material’ but may include everyday scenes, there are concerns about false positives filtering out normal videos with similar appearances. However, the government maintains that post-identification could undermine the policy’s intent.

A Broadcasting and Communications Commission official explained, “Although perfect detection is difficult immediately, we plan to continuously improve technical methods, such as narrowing the time intervals for capturing characteristic images of illegal footage.”