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Victims of the spy-cam porn industry are afraid to stay in hotels or go out in public without hiding their identities.
10:14, Fri, Feb 6, 2026 Updated: 10:19, Fri, Feb 6, 2026
The trend of secretive filming in hotel rooms has accelerated in China over the last decade (Image: Getty)
A couple were left "terrified" after their intimate moments in a Chinese hotel room were filmed and uploaded to social media for millions to see. Eric, from Hong Kong, was staying in a hotel in Shenzhen, southern China, with his girlfriend in 2023 when they became victims of the country's growing spy-cam porn industry.
Despite government attempts to curb the disturbing trend last year, footage of unknowing people having sex has increasingly appeared on websites, including Telegram, over the last decade. Thousands of videos filmed in hotel rooms without permission have been sold as porn online, according to an investigation by the BBC World Service.
Eric, whose real name has been withheld to protect his identity, was scrolling on social media when he realised with shock that a porn video on his timeline showed him with his girlfriend three weeks earlier.
The couple were staying in a hotel in Shenzhen when they were filmed without their consent (Image: Getty)
Eric said he had watched other secretly filmed videos as a teenager after being attracted by the "raw" nature of the footage, but no longer enjoys the content after becoming a victim of it himself.
"What drew me in is the fact that people don't know they're being filmed," he told the BBC. "I think traditional porn feels very staged, very fake."
His girlfriend Emily was "terrified" that her friends and family would see the clip and the couple didn't speak for weeks after learning of its existence.
The pair now wear hats when out in public and avoid hotels in a bid not to be recognised or fall victim to further breaches of their privacy.
China brought in new rules requiring hotel owners to check regularly for hidden cameras last April, but the threat of being filmed during hotel stays hasn't gone away.
The BBC investigation uncovered six different websites and apps claiming to operate more than 180 hotel room spy-cams, with some even live-streaming the guests' activities.
One such website displayed content from 54 different cameras over a seven month period, of which around half were operational at any given time - likely filming thousands without their knowledge, based on occupancy rates.
Blue Li, from the Chinese NGO RainLily, which helps victims remove sexually explicit content from the internet, said responsibility lies with huge tech companies as well as government officials.
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"These companies are not neutral platforms; their policies shape how the content would be spread," she added.
A spokesperson for Telegram said: "Sharing non-consensual poronography is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service ... It proactively moderates ... and accepts reports [of inappropriate content] in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day."
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