SK woman gets jail for spycam photograph

A SOUTH Korean court slapped a woman with a rare jail term yesterday for secretly photographing a male nude model, in a case that sparked controversy over double standards.

High-tech South Korea has been battling a growing epidemic of so-called “molka” or spycam videos, which largely involve men secretly filming women in schools, offices, trains, toilets, changing rooms and on the street.

Spycam crimes reported to police surged from around 1,100 in 2010 to more than 6,500 last year, and many offenders share or sell photos and videos online.

According to official statistics about 98 percent of offenders are men — ranging from school teachers and college professors to church pastors and police officers — while more than 80 percent of victims are women.

But in the latest case the woman in her 20s — also a nude model — was sentenced to 10 months in prison for taking a picture of her male counterpart at a Seoul art college and sharing it on the Internet in May.

She was arrested days later and police raided her home to search for evidence.

State data shows only 8.7 percent of high-tech peeping Toms are jailed on their first conviction, with most only fined or receiving suspended terms, seen by many as a slap on the wrist.

“The whole response by the police to this rare case in which a victim is male is truly unprecedented,” said Seo Seung-hui, head of the Korea Cyber Sexual Violence civic group.

“We rarely saw them act so quickly for countless cases in which victims were female,” she said.