KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN Anchor: Now, mobile phones are everywhere, in the hands of millions of people around the world. But while the price of handsets keeps coming down, the level of sophistication is going up. And as camera phones become more common, reports of peeping Toms are also rising. Janine Graham reports on the latest spying device the mobile phone.JANINE GRAHAM, CNN Correspondent: The villain in this James Bond movie does a bit of surreptitious snapping. But no longer does it happen just in the movies. From South Korea to Japan, camera phones are being used to sneak shots in locker rooms and on the subway. Over in Hong Kong, at least one offender a month is being arrested. And here, a website showing hundreds of pictures and video clips, apparently taken on the sly up the dresses of schoolgirls. In many jurisdictions, there’s little the law can do to stop this. Hong Kong police are charging some offenders with loitering. It’s an ironic twist, because the charge stems from antiquated laws, long out of use, a holdover of the former British administration. As in other countries, authorities seem to have been at a loss over what to do with offenders.
MATTHEW LEE, Lawyer: They don’t know how to deal with that. And it just happened. They caught someone doing these things, and they know which is not right intuitively. And they take the guy into the police station and they don’t know what to charge the guy. Then they thought of something, well maybe “loitering” is OK.
GRAHAM: In South Korea, they’re taking different steps. All phones must now make a loud sound when an image is captured to alert people to secret snappers. More and more outlets like gyms and swimming clubs ban camera phones on their premises. And in many workplaces they’re off limit, as companies worry about industrial espionage. Now there are growing calls for legislation making photo taking illegal in certain locations. Worldwide, in just the next two years, sales of these gadgets are forecast to increase as much as fivefold to over 400 million units. But as phones with photo and video functions proliferate, many expect so too, will the spies among us. Janine Graham, CNN, Hong Kong.
