Thousands of South Korean women have hit the streets and held a rally in Seoul against hidden spycam-based pornography. Around ten thousands of South Korean women have participated in the protest last weekend, and most of them have kept their face hidden for protection.
Since May, the problem is turning into a serious one and has broken the previous record of #MeToo movement.
The number of spycam violations reported to police has increased six-fold from around 1,100 in 2010 to more than 6,500 last year. The culprits include teachers, educators, specialists, church clerics, government authorities, cops and even a court judge.
Sometimes, even the victim's boyfriend or his relatives were responsible for such shameful action. Often, sociologists attribute this trend to South Korea's ancient and well-established male patriarchal society.
With the help of technology, such crimes are easy to do now. Being Asia's fourth-biggest economy, South Korea takes pride in its tech ability, from the ultra-quick Internet to manufacture of forefront cell phones. However, these advances have, likewise, offered to ascend to a multitude of well-informed peeping Toms, with recordings generally found in web chatrooms and on document sharing locales, or utilized as advertisements for sites propagating prostitution.
It is mandatory for manufacturers in South Korea to make a shutter camera noise while taking photos or video but many of these criminals use the special third-party application to mute the sound. Most of the offenders use tiny cameras which are hidden in cigarette lighters, inside eyeglasses, car keys, and even neckties.
A 43-year-old man was captured a month ago for spycam porn while shooting the occupants of Seoul motels for a long time, introducing smaller than normal focal points inside TV speakers. He did all this while disguising himself as a guest. When raided his home, the police found more than 20,000 spycams.
Claire Lee, one of the participants in the rally, told a French news agency, "Entering a public bathroom is such an unnerving experience these days, You never know if there's a spycam lens hidden inside ... filming you while you pee."
With more and more activists are taking part in this protest, it may soon reach other countries and may surpass the #MeToo movement.
