One man has explained the harrowing incident where he logged onto an NSFW site and was greeted by a video of him and his partner having sex after they were filmed in secret. They say you're caught on CCTV up to 300 times a day, but while most of us don't really mind being surveilled as we walk the streets or sit on public transport, it's a very different story when you're unaware in your supposedly private space.
They say that Big Brother is always watching, and bringing us uncomfortably close to George Orwell's dystopian take on the future, a man called 'Eric' has told his story to the BBC. Using the name Eric to protect his identity, he explains how he was scrolling a certain NSFW site back in 2023 while looking for pornography. He was shocked to recognize himself in one video, apparently freezing when he realized what had likely happened.
Three weeks before stumbling upon the video, Eric and his girlfriend had sex while staying in a hotel room in Shenzhen, China.
Advert
The outlet reiterates how the 'spy-cam porn' industry has been big in China for over a decade, even though producing and distributing pornography there is still illegal.
It's become something of an epidemic, and while there are tips and tricks for spotting these cameras all over social media, the government even introduced new regulations that require hotel owners to check for them.
The BBC's Eye Investigations documentary has looked closer at the situation, claiming it has found thousands of videos that appear to have been filmed in hotel rooms and then sold as porn on multiple sites.
It's said that many of these videos are advertised on Telegram, with six different websites and apps being promoted on there. As well as filming videos, some claimed to have livestreaming capabilities via over 180 spy cams set up in hotel rooms.
Eric says he used to be turned on by these kinds of 'raw' videos where people were captured without knowing, but after being on the other side of the lens, he sees it in a different light: "What drew me in is the fact that the people don't know they're being filmed. I think traditional porn feels very staged, very fake."
After he and 'Emily' were captured on the spy cam, Eric said he had to break the news to his 'mortified' girlfriend.
Noting that colleagues or family could've seen the video, Emily and Eric reportedly didn't speak for three weeks.
The BBC then posed as a customer, paying the 450 Yuan ($65) monthly fee to access one of the most prominent spy-cam porn trader's services known as 'AKA'.
Cameras are supposedly triggered when a guest puts their key card in a slot, although you can rewind livestreams and even see archived clips from previous ones.
During the investigation, the BBC came across a Telegram channel that had up to 10,000 members. Elsewhere, you could pay a flat fee for access to up to 6,000 videos that date back to 2017.
It's estimated that AKA has earned 63,200 Yuan ($22,000) since April 2025, which soars above the average annual income in China at 43,377 Yuan ($6,200) for the same period.
When approaching Telegram with its findings, the BBC got the following response: "Sharing non-consensual pornography is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service."
It added that it "proactively moderates...and accepts reports [of inappropriate content] in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day."
As for Eric and Emily, they apparently wear hats when out and about, worried about being spotted. Eric no longer uses Telegram channels to watch porn, although he occasionally checks to see whether the clip of him resurfaces.