One night in 2023, Eric was browsing a social media channel he often used for pornography when he froze in shock.
Seconds into a video, he recognised the couple entering a hotel room, placing their bags down, and later having sex. It was himself and his girlfriend.
Three weeks earlier, the pair had stayed overnight in a hotel in Shenzhen, southern China, completely unaware they were being filmed by a hidden camera.
Their private moments had been recorded and shared widely on the very platform Eric used to view adult content.
Eric, not his real name, had gone from being a viewer of China’s spy-cam porn industry to one of its victims.
A Persistent Hidden Threat
Spy-cam porn has been around in China for at least a decade, even though producing and distributing pornography remains illegal.
In recent years, the issue has sparked frequent discussions on social media, especially among women who share advice on spotting tiny cameras the size of a pencil eraser. Some travellers now pitch tents inside hotel rooms as a precaution against being filmed.
Last April, new government rules required hotel owners to carry out regular checks for hidden devices.
Yet the problem persists. The BBC World Service located thousands of recent spy-cam videos from hotel rooms being sold as pornography across multiple sites.
Much of this material is promoted and shared on the messaging app Telegram.
Over 18 months, the investigation uncovered six different websites and apps advertised on Telegram, collectively claiming to run more than 180 hotel-room spy-cams that not only recorded but also livestreamed guests’ activities.
Monitoring one such website for seven months revealed content from 54 cameras, with roughly half active at any given time.
Based on typical hotel occupancy, the BBC estimates thousands of guests could have been filmed during that period, most unaware of the intrusion.
From Viewer to Victim
Eric, from Hong Kong and now in his 30s, first started watching secretly filmed videos as a teenager, drawn to their “raw” feel.
“What drew me in is the fact that the people don’t know they’re being filmed,” he said. “Traditional porn feels very staged, very fake.”
That changed when he discovered the hour-long edited clip of himself and his girlfriend, “Emily”, uploaded to Telegram.
When he told Emily, she initially thought it was a joke. Seeing the footage left her mortified and fearful that colleagues or family might recognise them.
The couple barely spoke for weeks.
Inside the Spy-Cam Trade
One prominent trader, known as “AKA”, advertised livestream access on Telegram.
Posing as a customer, the investigation paid a monthly fee of 450 Yuan to join one of his promoted sites.
Subscribers could select from multiple live feeds showing different hotel rooms, activated when guests inserted their key card to power the electricity. Feeds could be rewound and archived clips downloaded.
Telegram channels linked to AKA had up to 10,000 members, with libraries of edited videos dating back to 2017 available for a flat fee.
Viewers often commented live, judging guests’ appearances, conversations, and sexual performance, celebrating intimate moments while complaining if lights were turned off.
Women in the footage were frequently insulted with derogatory terms.
The investigation traced one camera to a hotel room in Zhengzhou, central China. Hidden in a wall ventilation unit and wired to the building’s power, it pointed directly at the bed.
A popular hidden-camera detector failed to detect it.
After the device was disabled, subscribers on Telegram lamented the loss, with AKA quickly replacing it elsewhere and boasting about the platform’s speed.
Several similar agents were identified, all appearing to work for higher-level “camera owners” who handle installations and platforms.
Significant money is involved. The BBC estimates AKA alone earned at least 163,200 Yuan since last April, far exceeding China’s average annual income.
Spy-cams remain easy to buy in major electronics markets despite strict regulations.
Legal cases against operators exist across China, though detailed public information has become scarcer.
Support groups like Hong Kong’s RainLily report growing demand to remove such content, but face challenges as platforms like Telegram rarely respond to takedown requests.
The BBC reported the relevant accounts and groups to Telegram, which later stated it prohibits non-consensual pornography and moderates content.
After the findings were shared with AKA and another figure known as “Brother Chun”, their advertising accounts appeared to vanish, though the livestream site remained active.
Eric and Emily still carry the trauma. They wear hats in public to avoid recognition and avoid hotels whenever possible. Eric no longer seeks out such content but occasionally checks the channels in fear the clip might reappear.
About The Author
