Caught on camera: Exposing China’s spycam porn

0:28A warning before we start. Across the country, criminals are hiding secret cameras in hotel rooms. They are trying to capture people having sex, filming their most intimate moments without their knowledge or consent, then putting the footage online so strangers can pay to watch. We found that secret filming could happen anywhere. So-called spy camp porn has created a climate of fear and paranoia. It's a hot topic on social media and reality TV. There's a hidden camera here. There's a pinhole camera here. A massive illegal industry with nightmarish real-life consequences. I already knew it was me.

1:14After watching for two or three seconds. You felt very scared. You felt traumatised. This is the documentary from the World Service. I am Wanqing Zhang. a journalist from the BBC's Global China Unit. And for more than a year, I've been investigating the spy camp porn trade, trying to hunt down hidden cameras and find the criminals responsible. Hey bro, new hotel channels are coming up. Special price for old customers. Can they be stopped?

1:50I first became aware of spy camp porn by chance. I was scrolling on Twitter, the platform now known as X, and one post caught my attention. It was a short video which seemed to be filmed from a high angle in a hotel room. It showed a couple having sex. The caption was in Chinese. There was a hashtag that indicated the video showed secret filming in hotel rooms. A comment underneath this said, if you want to see more, then join a particular group on the Telegram app. Although Telegram is banned in China, it's still widely used, often for illicit activity. That video was the start of a rabbit hole.

2:36I discovered it was very easy to find Telegram channels offering clips of spy cam porn. They are used as trailers to encourage people to subscribe to platforms where you can watch the full videos. We see a significant increase in distributing hidden camera pornography online. That's Blue. She works for Ren Lily, an organisation which works to help victims of spy camp porn in Hong Kong and the mainland. She says the scale of this illegal trade is huge. The largest Telegram groups, the channels, the channels usually contains like more than 30 ,000 of members inside. And they usually create tons of subgroups to support these channels.

3:24And so in total, there will be more than 100 ,000 of members or subscribers within the channels. Posing as a buyer, I joined some of the most prominent channels on Telegram, including one run by an agent called AKA. After paying my$65 a month subscription, I was invited to a VIP group and I was shocked about what I found. They have thousands of videos of Hotel Seagree filming footage and the earliest one I could see back then was dated back to 2017, which is almost 10 years ago. The thing that disturbed me the most is not just like they post videos, they use degrading descriptions. I don't even know how to put it in a civilized world.

4:21As well as the edited sex footage, you can even buy access to watch live streaming. There are feeds from hidden cameras across the country. Each camera is given a name. Subscribers wait for something to happen. When they see somebody starting to have sex, they message each other in the chat. Bro, go check out that camera. I guess they are lovers. Look at this big ass. It's clear that the audience is largely men. What draws me in is the fact that the person doesn't know they're being filmed. Eric, which is not his real name, lives in Hong Kong. He and his girlfriend, Emily, both work in the hotel industry.

5:06Eric had subscribed to several telegram groups to watch spycam porn content. His words are spoken by an actor to protect his identity. I think traditional porn feels very staged, very thick, but secretly filmed videos feel raw, realistic, completely real to me. However, in early 2024, things suddenly became all too real for Eric. I've seen this kind of incident happen. I've come across cases where people were secretly filmed. But I never thought that something like this would actually happen to me. I was at home and browsing some telegram groups. All of the content was filmed in hotels. When Eric clicked on one video, the scene was horribly familiar I knew after watching for two or three seconds Two months earlier, Eric and Emily, that's also not her real name had spent a night in Shenzhen on the mainland They had picked their hotel at Randon There wasn't anything that made me feel suspicious Eric realized video of their stay was now online The filming started when I put down my backpack.

6:22The sexual activities that night, all of that was filmed. I felt very angry, humiliated and ashamed. I immediately wanted the video to disappear. Eric was too afraid to tell the hotel or the police, but most of all, Emily. It wasn't until weeks later that he shared his discovery. Emily's words are also spoken by an actor. We were having a meal at home, and while we were eating he told me, I have something to tell you, but don't worry, it's been dealt with. I took some time to prepare myself before I could tell her. She thought I was joking. Then I showed her the video, and she knew it was true.

7:07My first reaction was shock and disbelief. I eventually watched for a few seconds. but I didn't finish watching the whole video. At first we got into a very big fight. At that time she blamed me a lot. I found it hard to accept. When she finally broke down crying beside me, I felt really helpless. He said he had done everything he could. Before telling Emily, Eric had contacted Telegram. He had reported the video by selecting the category of child sexual abuse. It was a tactic to make the moderators pay attention. And it seemed to work. Eric told Emily the video had been deleted. When he finished talking, I was still worried.

7:56Because even though the group no longer existed and the video was gone, the person who did the secret filming, he must have an original copy. Maybe one day he will put it online again. Eric still looks at the spy camp on site, but these days it's to check the video hasn't been uploaded again. The couple live in constant anxiety. When you're out and someone looks at you, you get scared, wondering whether they're looking at me because they've watched that video. However, most of the victims of Spike and Paul may not even know. The chances of someone discovering video footage of themselves are really low.

8:41Some of the cameras are so small they can fit inside a plug socket or air conditioning unit. They are hard to spot and can be set up to use hotel Wi-Fi to stream video. Cells of small handheld devices that claim to detect these cameras are booming. The problem has also caught the attention of the Chinese authorities.

9:05You book a room in a hotel but end up being secretly filmed for a porn video. Porn sites make huge profits while you don't even realize you've been caught on camera. In this social media video, a uniformed Chinese policewoman gives a tutorial about how to detect hidden cameras with your phone. Once you enter the room, first draw the curtains. Next, switch off the lights. Turn on your phone's camera and slowly scan around the room. Last April, a regulation was introduced specifically banning the installation of any cameras in hotel rooms. Hotel owners were also made responsible for ensuring there are no surveillance devices in rooms.

9:51But watchings by Campon hasn't been made illegal. A few months after finding Eric and Emily, there was a breakthrough in my efforts to get closer to the people selling spy cam porn. I was messaged by AKA, who ran the telegram group My Undercover Persona subscribed to. Now, he was promoting a new website. Hey bro, new hotel channels are coming up. Special price for old customers. But the website launch was delayed and aka let sleep. It wasn't him calling the shots. I'm waiting for the camera owner to announce sales. Won't be long. I had been tipped off. This is how the industry works. AKA and others like him are agents who sell spy campaign to consumers through Telegram.

10:42Above them are the suppliers who control the live stream cameras. They can sell the same camera to multiple agents. So who is AKA's supplier? Could that be the camera owner he mentioned? Eventually, AKA told me the new website was ready. Go enjoy yourself. So when I log to the website, first of all, I can see several categories. I bought the membership of the university campuses one, and I can see several of the live streaming content of different hotel rooms. According to the selling, it seems like those hotel rooms are located near the Chinese university campuses. AKA invited me to a VIP group of only a few hundred members.

11:38In that chat, a member revealed that one of the live streams was showing a hotel room in Zhengzhou. I wondered if it was possible to pinpoint the location of such a tiny camera in such a large city. By comparing the room in the live streams with adverts online, I noticed it was similar to the decor of hotels in a complex in the Erqi district. But there are more than 10 hotels in the complex. Luckily, zooming in on the pillows on the live stream revealed which one. But to find the exact room would require some help on the ground. Our researcher went to check out the hotel. As some of the floors had dozens of rooms, it didn't seem like she was going to have an easy task.

12:27Her voice has been changed to protect her identity. So as I was walking down the hallway, I was able to peek through a few rooms.

12:42And that's when I spotted the one that looks exactly like our target room. To make sure, we decided to do a test. Since the room was empty, I could pop in and leave something on the bedside table as a visual marker for us to double-check on the live stream later. The moment the camera went live on the website, the hotel sleeper she had left behind was still sitting in the exact same spot. Two weeks later, our team on the ground returned to locate the hidden camera in the room. Arriving as guests, they entered the hotel and headed upstairs. Meanwhile, back in London, I watched on the spy camp on the side livestream.

13:34Oh, I can see them. I can see them walking to the room. It's the room that we have been monitoring for months.

13:48I think she just took out her detective device.

13:56Oh, she just missed it.

14:03Oh my gosh, she's looking at me right now. Our expensive detection device failed to raise the alarm, but we knew the camera was filming from above.

14:19Our researchers stood on a chair and reached up to a small ventilation vent. Oh yeah, I can see their hand. I can see their hand. Oh, I cannot see their face. I think their finger just caught it.

14:35They found it. I cannot believe we have done it. Our researchers switched off the camera and then they called me. Hello. We saw you from the live streaming. It was so bizarre. I know. They found this. I think this is like a ventilator. And you can see the camera is blue. It's so tiny. And up high. There's no way if I'm not aware of something wrong with the room. That I could find this camera. When you used the detective device, did it make any sound? It's not working. Yeah, I mean, we spent hundreds of pounds to buy it. And even in that case, it was not working. This isn't a one-off. On Chinese porn sites, we have found videos where hotel guests do use detection devices, which then fail to spot the hidden cameras, and the guests are filmed having sex.

15:40But this camera wasn't going to film anybody again. Our researcher made sure of that by melting the lens. It wasn't long before the war spread on Telegram. someone just said three minutes ago saying someone using a detective kit and it's offline now that means there are really people watching it all the time however within 24 hours the disabled camera had been replaced with another one in a different hotel room you are listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service I am Wanqing Zhang with caught on camera exposing China spy cam porn Now that we have seen a camera with our own eyes there's one question left Who had hidden it there?

16:36Back on Telegram I kept noticing that every time a camera went offline all the websites start glitching aka would post something like Don't panic I've messaged to the camera owner Let's wait for him to solve it when he's online. So who is the camera owner? By mistake, AKA sent me a screenshot of the profile of somebody who goes by the name Brother Chun, who appeared to be the person in charge. Almost immediately, AKA realized his mistake and recalled his message. I managed to get Brother Chun's contact details, and after weeks of messaging him, posing as somebody eager to work for him, I got an admission of sorts.

17:24Aren't you the owner of the livestream website? No, I'm an agent. Can you introduce me to the camera owner? I want to give it a try selling channels. No use, not hiring. So there remained a question about whether there is somebody above border trend. aka isn't the only agent walking under the train. I have come across several others selling exactly the same camera access. What is clear is the presence of a complex, profit-driven network built on the exploitation of people's privacy.

18:06Spy cam porn is not confined to hotels. we have discovered hidden cameras filmed in places like public toilets and beauticians and it's not only public buildings. If you can't even live freely in your own home then how could you possibly feel free anywhere else? Shiyu is from a southern province of China though that's not her real name and her words are spoken by an actor. She works as a fashion live streamer and when she rented a new apartment she noticed something odd. After I moved in one night I noticed a blue light flashing in the gap between the lamp and the ceiling. I felt that was very strange so took a broom and pushed open the ceiling.

18:54That's when I discovered it was a hidden camera. Panicked, she called the police. They found the camera was connected to a network cable like the ones used for live streaming. My mind kept running wild After all, in the bedroom, you change clothes and things. I was terrified that my private images might appear on pornographic websites. I never imagined that something like this could happen in my home. Shibu posted about the incident on social media, and it resonated. One post had more than a million views. After I spoke out, many victims who had been secretly filmed in rented flats contacted me.

19:38Months later, police told Shibyu they had caught the person who installed the camera. He was only put in administrative detention for a handful of days. That meant he didn't get a criminal record. My first reaction was deep dissatisfaction. I could tell they didn't take the case seriously. It's practically like condoning criminals, because if the punishment is light, there will only be more people willing to take this risk, since there are profits behind it.

20:13We think that the authorities and the public are not seeing the secret filming issues as a very severe problem. It directly restricts women's freedom and their sense of safety in everyday spaces. That's Blue again from the NGO Renlili. In her job, she works to get secretly filmed footage taken down. To be frank, we are facing huge challenges. Our takedown rates have been decreasing year after year. And one of the huge challenges is to report contents located on Telegram. Blue says the platform is unresponsive, so Renly is forced to contact the admins of the groups themselves. the very people selling spy camp porn.

21:04We believe tech companies also share the huge responsibility in addressing these image-based sexual abuse problems. Because these companies are not neutral platforms, their policies shape how the content would be spread. My producer Kate and I are reviewing the evidence before we confront the spy camp porn seller, aka, and his supplier. Bada Chun. You've been monitoring the Live is Live stream website for seven months now. What's it revealed to you? It's actually very scary to imagine the whole scale, the true scale of the secret filming industry in China because this is just one platform and this platform has only operated for seven months and that they have installed over 50 cameras across China and I don't even dare to do the math and imagine the whole scales of it.

22:02Based on typical occupancy rates, we estimate that thousands of victims could have been filmed by the cameras on the live streaming website. And subscription fees appear to have generated income of at least 22 ,000 US dollars for AKA. I'm about to finally confront them, try to confront them. I will first call Brother Chun and I will come clean that I'm a journalist, tell him the evidence we have got against him and try to see what he will respond. I'm actually quite nervous. So I'm going to call him. My God. My God, I'm anxious.

22:57He hung up. He said, do not call me.

23:03He said, tell me what you want.

23:11I'm going to try again.

23:18No, he doesn't want to.

23:29So what now? Yeah, I think I'm just going to send him a voice note.

23:39Send. Oops! He just deleted me. He just cleared all of our messages.

23:50I think he just blocked me. Yeah, I cannot see him anymore in my contact list. After he finally realized that I'm actually a journalist, he just blocks me immediately. So now I'm going to try with AKA. I can see that he reads those messages, but he didn't reply. And I just realized that he had removed me from all the channels that I was in. I checked AKA's main telegram group using another undercover account. He is literally just live streaming a hotel room right now. Within minutes, he just went back directly to advertising his account to nearly 10 ,000 members. He hasn't stopped. AKA and Brother Chen's accounts remained active after we reported their content on Telegram.

24:55They were deleted 10 days later, within hours of us writing to Brother Chen and AKA, setting out our allegations in full. However, the livestream website is still live. When we presented our findings to Telegram, they told us,