In Singapore, an average of 100 police reports on upskirt crimes have been filed annually since 2013. More than 500 insult of modesty cases – peeping tom incidents – are recorded every year, on average, since 2015. In 2020 alone, the courts prosecuted a large number of offending voyeurs.
What’s interesting to note is that these types of crimes are typically committed by young men, and sometimes teens.
Psychologists are seeing at least one new case of voyeurs a month, on average – many clients, some as young as teens, haven’t been reported to the police but are referred to by concerned parents, schools, or employers.
Gender-equality group AWARE reported an overall rise in cases involving technology-facilitated sexual violence, from 46 in 2016 (out of 338 total cases), to 124 in 2018 (out of 808 total cases). These include revenge porn, a crime commonly committed by an intimate partner.
So how did Singapore become such a hotbed of voyeurism? While it’s easy to point the finger at porn, or just ‘boys being boys’, technology has a part to play too.
Related: Why do Young Men Commit Voyeurism in Singapore?
Tech: the finger of progress
In this day and age, it may be difficult to find someone who hasn’t had any exposure to porn – it may be accidental or intentional. A survey conducted by Touch Cyber Wellness in 2016 revealed that 9 in 10 teenage boys in Singapore have watched or read pornographic materials within the past year, with some being exposed as young as 6 years old.
Everyone who has access to the internet has access to porn, but what’s interesting to note is that porn is no longer something people consume – it’s now something people are creating. The advancement of mobile phone cameras and spy cameras made these crimes that much easier to commit.
While some of these voyeurs tend to store their recorded photos and videos for private use, many of them also share them online in closed forums or Telegram groups to earn clout among fellow perverts.
Social app Telegram was in the spotlight recently thanks to the now infamous SG Nasi Lemak group – the admins were charged in court for circulating obscene materials that were mostly shared via file sharing sites like Dropbox.
The law and technology: playing whack-a-mole
Our high-speed nation has fueled the adoption and innovation of new technologies, and in the rush to develop technological prowess, many failed to consider the flip side of this advancement – that the power meant to positively impact our lives is also used to fuel a desire for the dark side.
Although invasion of privacy is non-physical, it doesn’t discount the fact that someone’s dignity has been taken away; in some cases victims have been blackmailed with their video footage. Technology is not the villain here because it’s merely a medium. With the widespread ability of recording technology and our 24/7 channels of communication, these invasions of privacy are getting increasingly damaging and widespread.
Of course, the best solution is to not have these crimes committed in the first place. However, regulating the sale and use of tools like spy cameras or smartphones is not feasible. Even if one person gets caught for recording illegal videos, dozens more manage to evade capture. In June this year, the court prosecuted a man who recorded thousands of illegal videos and photos over the course of 13 years.
The hope probably lies in the actual technology itself – for instance, could smartphones use AI to recognise upskirt videos or photos and disable the recording function? Currently, hidden camera detector apps are available for free on both iOS and Android, but new phones can feature in-built spy camera detectors.
There’s already a framework for punishing criminals for voyeurism which was updated to include cyber crimes. Laws on cyber crimes in Singapore targeting voyeurs, upskirters, and revenge porn just came into effect on Jan 1 2020, punishing perpetrators for illegally keeping, distributing or selling pornographic materials digitally. Punishment includes imprisonment, fine, caning, or both, while offenders who commit a crime against someone who they are in an intimate or close relationship with will be liable for double the punishment.
