The police said on Wednesday, around 1,600 men and women were secretly filmed inside motel rooms in South Korea and were live-streamed on websites for paying customers to watch them.
2 men were arrested and 2 more are being question in connection with the scandal that involved 42 rooms in 30 motel rooms in 10 cities of South Korea.
The Cyber Investigation Department at the National Police Agency said that the hidden cameras were set up inside wall sockets, hairdryer holders, and TV boxes. Most of the cases were in motels and inns, the footages were being live-streamed online.
The website that hosted the live-streaming had more than 4000 members in which 97 of them paid a fee of $44.95 per month to avail premium services like the access of replaying special live streams. From November 2018 to March 2019, the website earned around $6000.
The police said, “There was a similar case in the past where illegal cameras were (secretly installed) and were consistently and secretly watched, but this is the first time the police caught where videos were broadcast live on the internet.”
In 2017 alone, more than 6,400 cases of illegal filming were reported to the police. In 2012, it was only 2400.
In 2018, more than 10,000 women protested in the streets of Seoul and other major cities to protest against the issue, the women used the slogan “My Life is Not Your Porn.”
As a response to the protests, the government of Korea launched a team of all women inspectors. Their main purpose was to conduct a regular inspection on the city’s public toilets, motels, and inns.
Earlier this year, the co-owner of a South Korean based porn site was sentenced to serve 4 years inside prison and was also ordered to pay $1.26 Million as a fine. Soranet was shut down by the Korean Government in 2018, it was a popular website for those people who uploaded pictures and video clips from hidden cameras and upskirt cameras.