South Korea women in record rally against ‘spycam porn’
PROTESTERS ARE DEMANDING GOVERNMENT TOUGHEN PUNISHMENTS FOR OFFENDERS
Tens of thousands of South Korean women staged a mass rally in Seoul yesterday to protest against spycam porn, urging tougher punishments for peeping Toms as anger over the growing scourge boils over.
Since May, the monthly demonstration in Seoul has shattered records to become the biggest-ever women’s protest in South Korea where the global #MeToo movement has unleashed an unprecedented wave of female-led activism.
The primary cause of the protests are so-called spycam videos in a tech-savvy country where news of men caught secretly filming women in schools, offices, trains, or even toilets have made headlines on a daily basis.
Organisers said yesterday’s event drew 70,000 participants, ten thousand more than the previous month’s rally, despite an unprecedented summer ■ heatwave that has pushed the mercury above 37 degrees.
“Women’s toilets in this country are infested with spycams! Please please crack down on the crimes,” the women chanted in unison at the city’s Gwanghwamun Plaza which routinely hosts mass rallies.
Some waved banners with slogans such as: “We can’t live like this anymore” and “South Korea: the nation of spycams.”
Asia’s fourth-largest economy takes pride in its tech prowess, from ultra-fast internet to cutting-edge smartphones.
But these advances have also given rise to an army of techsavvy perverts, with videos widely shared in internet chat rooms and on file-sharing sites, or used as adverts for websites promoting prostitution or gambling.
The number of such spycam crimes reported to police has surged from around 1,100 in 2010 to more than 6,500 last year, with the offenders ranging from schoolteachers and college professors to church pastors and even a court judge.
Faces hidden
The protesters are demanding that the government toughen punishments for offenders — most of whom are fined or receive suspended jail terms — and shutter websites hosting the footage.
Most participants at yesterday’s rally hid their faces with hats, sunglasses or surgical facial masks.
Some South Koreans who have previously joined protests in support of women’s rights have faced online bullying and harassment.