Laws alone no answer to spycams

• By Lo Yi-ting 羅伊庭

Nearly one in 10 people in Taiwan — overwhelmingly women — are at risk of being filmed without their consent. According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, cases of illicit filming and voyeurism have surged by 160 percent, with confirmed incidents rising from 62 in 2020 to 161 in 2021.

Harsher penalties and longer jail terms for voyeurs are a step in the right direction, but punishment alone is far from enough to protect women from spy camera abuse.

Under 2023 amendments to the Criminal Code, specifically Article 319-1 to Article 319-6 under the Offense Against Sexual Privacy and Synthetic Sexual Videos section, offenses such as filming, distributing or broadcasting sexual videos without consent are chargeable only upon complaint. The legislation is self-defeating, as most victims of upskirting or spycam pornography are unaware that they have been captured on camera.

Law enforcement has acknowledged the difficulty of identifying victims from illicit footage, even when faces are visible. In one case concluded in April last year, a perpetrator profited by more than NT$10 million (US$303,794) by selling upskirt videos filmed with a camera hidden in his backpack.

Prosecutor Huang Yan-ru (黃嬿如) said that only 11 of the 3,792 victims — who were identifiable by their uniforms — filed lawsuits.

Even if perpetrators are prosecuted, a maximum three-year prison sentence for illegal filming pales in comparison to the lifelong trauma victims endure.

The authorities seem to be more invested in quick-fix legislation than preventative measures that can spare girls and women from this everyday horror.

Most policies to root out spycam crimes have been postponed or shelved, while regular sweeps of high-risk public spaces remain lax and sporadic. Despite repeated calls from legislators and women’s rights groups for a nationwide anti-spycam bill, not all local authorities have regulations requiring public and commercial space owners to conduct monthly inspections.

While Taipei enforces such rules, the bill has remained unchanged for 12 years. The lack of clear guidelines for re-inspections and government oversight creates significant gaps in accountability and enforcement.

Implementing inspections offers no guarantee that the camera-detecting equipment in use is on par with the ever-improving technology capitalized by perpetrators. Schools and universities continue to rely on detectors procured more than two decades ago.

Even after scandals involving educators caught in illicit filming, local authorities responded by purchasing obsolete detectors incapable of picking up 4G, 5G or Wi-Fi signals.

Technology gaps are only part of the problem. Preventive measures will not be complete without addressing the prevailing societal sexism that fuels violence against women. Officials in the legal system — mostly men — often downplay the severity of spycam sex crimes.

“Boys’ club” culture has permeated the way police handle these crimes, allowing male perpetrators to get away without paying the price.

Over the past three months, multiple cases have emerged of police installing hidden cameras in women’s restrooms at the precincts where they work. Before being caught this time, an officer at the Taipei City Police Department’s Xinyi Precinct was allegedly involved in illicit filming at his previous station. Female officers who had been filmed voiced their outrage, saying that police leadership had known about the issue for months, but remained silent.

With sweeps ordered months later, authorities’ belated response feels more like a hollow checkbox gesture.

If female police officers are treated this way, it is no surprise that, despite nearly two-thirds of Taiwanese experiencing digital gender-based violence, less than 4 percent seek help.

Dismissing or defending sexist acts opens a gateway for more gender-based offenses. Most people would rather think of perpetrators of sex offences as malicious abusers or a community of oddballs, but the harsh truth is that they can be anyone — schoolboys bonding over exchanging explicit pictures, men treating women as conquests on nights out or male coworkers using derogatory and sexist banter as ice-breakers before a meeting.

Change will never happen if gender equality continues to be sidelined and treated as a nice-to-have add-on rather than a fundamental human right. Rather than outsourcing the responsibility to the next generation and expecting them to end the vicious cycle of sexism, more gender-sensitivity training must be required for police, lawyers and other legal workers.

Relying on harsher punishments alone will not eradicate illegal filming. Reducing digital sex crimes will require collaboration between lawmakers, educators and women’s rights groups to create better support services and establish preventive measures.

Lo Yi-ting is a freelance writer based in the UK who focuses on geopolitics and gender-related issues.