Upskirt Photographers Use Silent Smartphone Apps
Most cameras and mobile phones in Japan automatically make shutter sounds when they are used to take a photograph, a feature that makes it difficult for perverts to secretly capture upskirt images. Smart phone such as the iPhone usually allow users to disable all sounds, but iPhones sold in Japan have been altered to keep the shutter sound on.
However, as the Yomiuri has pointed out, some smartphone applications can disable shutter sounds:
On Nov. 12, a man was arrested at a train station in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, after he took photos up the skirt of a female vocational school student with his smartphone as she stood on an escalator.
The man reportedly told police he used an app that silenced the shutter sound to prevent his target from noticing what he was doing.
A man arrested in September after he photographed a woman’s underwear in Tokyo also reportedly told police he had used such an app to stealthily take photos about 20 times.
According to the National Police Agency, 1,741 cases of illicit photography were reported nationwide last year, a 1.6-fold increase from 2006.
The largest number of snap-happy camera voyeurs was reported in Kanagawa Prefecture.
“About 30 percent of cases involved the misuse of smartphone apps,” a senior Kanagawa prefectural police investigator said.
There are already methods that allow determined people to disable the shutter sounds of non-smartphone cameras. It seems that smartphone apps are making this kind of behavior more accessible to people with less technical ability….
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