Documentary
Time Presents: Open Shutters, a Film by Youjin Do
YOUJIN DO – 8 March 2023 – TIME YouTube
Co-published by TIME and Field of Vision, the documentary Open Shutters follows Jieun Choi, a journalist in South Korea investigating the country’s plague of spycams. Targeted mostly at women, these tiny cameras are hidden in public restrooms, hotels, and changing rooms. The images they record are uploaded to websites, where men pay to access them. These endemic violations of privacy have traumatized women across the country. More than 30,000 cases of filming with the use of hidden cameras were reported to police in South Korea between 2013 and 2018, according to media reports. Choi herself was a target. When a police officer rang her doorbell late one night, she found out that she was being filmed through her apartment window by a man on the rooftop of a nearby building. Under the banner “My life is not your porn,” tens of thousands of women turned out in 2018 in the capital Seoul to protest illegal filming. The protests prompted the government to enact some reforms. But the rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a June 2021 report that it remained difficult for women and girls targeted in digital sex crimes to get justice—a problem that Choi also faces. In 2019, prosecutors dropped 43.5% of sexual digital crimes cases, HRW says.
‘My life is not your porn’: South Korea’s war against spy cameras and sexual harassment
ADAM TAYLOR & MIN JOO KIM – 31 July 2018 – The Independent
Community cam-hunter squads now conduct electronic sweeps of public spaces
It has been an excruciatingly hot summer in South Korea, but those heading to the beach or the swimming pool to relax may find themselves burned by something else – hidden spy cameras that film them in a state of undress.
In response to a growing outcry, teams organised by the police have sprung into action. Armed with infrared scanners that can spot a lens and devices that detect electrical charges, they spend hours hunting for cameras installed by “peeping Toms” in changing rooms and public bathrooms.
“We have to go out more often these days,” said Lee Su-hyun, a police officer from Changwon in the coastal province of South Gyeongsang.
During a recent stop at a local pool, team members waved the gizmos from lockers to door frames to toilet bowls to shower heads to just about everywhere in between. Yet the small team, which includes two schoolgirls, two housewives and a number of dedicated police officers, did not find a single camera.
It was not a surprise. These inspections in South Gyeongsang have been going on since last September, but a hidden camera has never been found. Indeed, though there are scores of such teams nationwide, police officials say none has ever found a camera – but perhaps that is not the point.
South Korea is in the midst of a battle against sexual harassment. Over the past year, the country’s #MeToo movement has taken down multiple high-profile men accused of harassment and assault, including Ahn Hee-jung, a rising star in the ruling democratic party.
Although concerns about spy cameras and illicit filming are far from new in South Korea, the problem appears to be growing. The number of suspected perpetrators identified by the police rose from 1,354 in 2011 to 5,363 in 2017, and more than 95 per cent were men.
Police say that the wider availability of smartphones, as well as the rise of social media, contributed to this increase. Indeed, despite the focus on hidden cameras, 90 per cent of the crimes involved filming with regular smartphones, statistics show.
This summer, the backlash began. Tens of thousands of women took part in multiple street protests in Seoul, holding up signs that said “my life is not your porn” and demanding punishment for men who film videos as well as those who watch them.
Police identified more than 26,000 victims of illicit filming between 2012 and 2016 of whom more than 80 per cent were female. But many never find out they are victims. The real number “would be 10 times higher than the police figure” if the full extent were known, said Oh Yoon-sung, a criminology professor at Soonchunhyang University.
The controversy even reached North Korea. “What is wrong with South Korean men?” one North Korean official asked visiting journalists this month, according to local media.
There are signs of concern at the top. In May, South Korean President Moon Jae-in lamented that spy cams had become a “a part of daily life” and called for tougher punishments for those caught.
Some women have taken action into their own hands. A small group uploaded videos apparently filmed in men’s changing rooms – a revenge that upended the gender dynamics of a largely male-perpetrated crime.
But much of the battle falls on authorities. Police officials say that over the past year they have undertaken a variety of new initiatives, from scouring the web to find illicitly recorded videos to keeping better tabs on sales of camera hardware. But inspections of public areas may be the most high-profile of the measures on offer – whether cameras are found or not.
The team in South Gyeongsang has inspected all sorts of places: beaches, swimming pools, hotels, music venues, shopping centres and offices. Nowhere seemed to be off limits. “Hospitals will ask us to do inspections,” said Mr Lee…