"It Starts the Moment the Room Lights Turn On"...Boasting of "180 Hidden Cameras," Chilling Reality of Illegal Filming in Chinese Hotels

BBC Tracks the Case for 18 Months
"Live-Streamed... Appearance Rating and Abuse as Well"

Hidden cameras have been installed in some hotel rooms in China, and thousands of illegally recorded videos are reportedly being distributed through them.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recently reported that thousands of hidden-camera videos filmed in Chinese hotel rooms are being sold as pornography. Over a period of 18 months, the BBC tracked and identified six different websites and apps that were being promoted on the social networking service Telegram.

Some Telegram channels had as many as 10,000 members, and one platform operator even advertised that a total of more than 180 hidden cameras had been installed in hotel rooms. A separate seven-month monitoring of illegal websites found videos recorded with 54 cameras, and about half of those cameras were streaming live.

Hidden camera in a hotel room in China. Screenshot from the British Broadcasting Corporation.

On one live-streaming website, users could view multiple hotel rooms for a monthly fee of 450 yuan (about 95,000 won). The footage began recording as soon as guests inserted their key cards, and the videos could be rewound or downloaded.

There were also Telegram channels where hotel guests were watched and their appearance or sexual activity was rated, and when the lights went off, users expressed dissatisfaction or exchanged remarks that insulted the guests.

Foreign media, drawing on subscribers, social media users, and their own investigation, confirmed that a hidden camera had been installed in a hotel room in Zhengzhou in central China. They then located a camera aimed at the bed inside a wall ventilation unit in that room. The camera could not be detected by common commercial scanning devices.

The removal of this camera was itself shared on a Telegram channel, and the operator was welcomed when he announced that a different camera in another hotel was now up and running to replace it.

Hidden camera in a hotel room in China. Screenshot from the British Broadcasting Corporation.

According to foreign media, the distribution of such illegal recordings in China is being carried out in an organized manner. They also found that at the top of this supply chain are "camera owners," who arrange the installation of the cameras and manage the platforms.

Based on subscription fees and other indicators, one operator's profit from distributing illegal videos was estimated to be 3.7 times last year's average annual income in China of 43,377 yuan (about 9.16 million won). Foreign media estimated that he had earned at least 163,200 yuan (about 34.45 million won) since April last year.

Illegal filming in Chinese hotel rooms has been raised as an issue for about 10 years. In April last year, the Chinese authorities also announced regulations requiring hotel owners to regularly check whether hidden cameras had been installed. However, foreign media stressed that "the risk of being filmed in Chinese hotel rooms has not disappeared."

When foreign media used the reporting function to alert Telegram to the reality of this "spy-cam pornography," there was no response. Ten days later, when they contacted Telegram again with the full investigation findings, the platform replied that "non-consensual pornography violates our terms of service" and said it would actively manage such content going forward.