Cameraphones plus Internet Could equal Prison   12/12/2004 - 6,228 views, 1 Comment

Whoops, hold on, because that latter can get you into trouble, maybe even into jail.

There seems to be an upsurge in people who use their cameraphones to take pictures of people in various states of undress (say, dressing rooms of clothing stores, public restrooms, etc.), and then post them to the Internet. The terms for taking and sharing these sorts of photos are “upskirting” and “downblousing” (for rather obvious reasons; hopefully I don’t have to draw you a picture!)

I hadn’t realized that this was such a problem, although it’s obvious if you think about it.

Well, the good lawmakers in Washington D.C. realize it, and this week introduced legislation specifically making it a crime to take surreptitious photos or videos of anyone in various stages of undress.

According to New York civil liberties attorney Hanan B. Kolko, “at least in theory there is now federal protection available so people can’t unknowingly have their private parts photographed, downloaded and transmitted around the world.”

Having one’s private parts downloaded does sound painful, doesn’t it? And I think that perhaps Madonna is the only one who has had her private parts transmitted around the world.

While this law is Federal only, some states, such as Florida and South Dakota, have also crafted “phonecam voyeurism” laws.

Said Kolko, “It’s pretty narrowly crafted, and protects those parts of a person’s body that they wouldn’t want to be photographed or videotaped, and especially now that photography and video images can be downloaded and transmitted across the Internet within seconds around the world, it gives people protection from worldwide exposure without their consent.”