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The other was accused of launching and managing the now-shuttered website. One of the suspects allegedly installed the cameras after entering the hotels as a guest. If convicted, the two main suspects could face up to seven years in prison, according to police. Īssociated Press reported: “A police statement accused the men of earning about US$7,000 in total by posting or livestreaming the video on an overseas-based internet site between last November and early March.
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The Korean National Police Agency said mini-spy cameras were set up in TV set-top boxes, hairdryer cradles or electrical outlets in 42 rooms in 30 hotels in central and southeastern South Korea. In March 2019, South Korean police arrested four people on suspicion of secretly taking videos of about 1,600 guests in hotel rooms and posting or streaming them on the internet. “It is true that the investigations of our police authorities have been somewhat loose and that the punishments were not too severe even when such crimes were exposed,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in May 2018, “adding that illicit recordings should be considered a “serious” and “malicious” crime.” Four Arrested for Spy Camming 1,600 Hotel Guests Some said a boys’ club culture permeated the way the police handled these crimes, often letting men go without being charged in cases where there was no physical violence. Tiffany May and Su-Hyun Lee wrote in the New York Times: “Many women are calling for harsher punishments for perpetrators, in addition to the removal of hidden cameras. But most of the time, people aren't aware their images are being traded: A 2018 study by the Korean Women Lawyers Association found 89 percent of spycam crimes were perpetrated by strangers.” “Officially, police estimate more than 6,000 cases of people filmed on spy cams without their consent, each year, between 20. The footage of sex acts is considered a "natural porn" that's commonly distributed and profited off of on online platforms, without the victims' knowledge. Tiny hidden cameras that look like lighters secretly film women in bathrooms, public restrooms and changing rooms in clothing stores, gyms and swimming pools, and “public places like subway stations and during private moments - while they're having sex. Įlise Hu of NPR wrote: “The spycam porn epidemic that's gone on for years. It was the largest women's protest in South Korean history. In August 2018, 22,000 women protested the issue. Beginning in 2018, outrage over law enforcement's lukewarm and uneven response to spycam spurred women to take to the streets. In 2017, South Korea revised laws to strengthen punishment for spycam pornography but this had little impact.
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Hidden camera porn, known in South Korea as "spycam," or molka, is regarded as a serious problem in South Korea and is blamed for encouraging misogynistic culture.
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