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‘That man’s filming us,’ a girl whispers to her friend as they order food at a London McDonald’s.
Behind them, a man appears to keep recording for another minute with a camera trained on their legs and lower bodies.
The teenagers are among hundreds of women and girls Metro has identified in videos apparently filmed across London and uploaded to a website charging viewers $50 for access.
Their faces are used in thumbnails to ‘entice’ viewers to subscribe.
Under titles like ‘Sunny Day Shopper’ and ‘Spanish brunette’, the website claims there are around 400 videos of women and girls, many of whom appear underage.
In most cases, they are walking around the city in shorts or leggings.
The women and girls appear to have been filmed in busy locations including Stratford Westfield, Oxford Street and Tube stations.
One victim, Eranta Ntatsi, 29, was filmed as she went about her business in Wood Green’s High Road. She likens her experience as ‘being raped in the moment’.
The mum-of-two told Metro she had no clue about the video until a man, who follows her husband’s social media accounts, recognised her.
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He sent him the footage and now Eranta feels ‘completely violated and abused’.
She said: ‘It was three years ago when I walked out of Halifax after collecting some of my maternity payment. I never even noticed I was being filmed, and suddenly a few weeks ago a man contacts my husband out of the blue letting him know I was on this website.
‘Watching the video for the first time, I just felt disgust. I hate that I am just pushing my baby in a pram and someone is having sexual thoughts.
‘But I won’t stop wearing leggings. I am a personal trainer and even have my own athletic clothing business.’
Metro shared details of the website with the Victim’s Commissioner for London, Andrea Simon.
As the mother of a 14-year-old daughter, she said she was ‘enraged’.
‘The scale of this is huge. You’ve got hundreds of women and girls affected, and the ability to upload these videos to a website and to share them with others is compounding the harm.
‘The Online Safety Act makes it a duty for sites to take down nonconsensual image-based abuse within 48 hours, but there has to be enforcement behind it.’
Ofcom said the law was clear that both upskirting and sharing such content online were illegal.
They said: ‘The law is clear that both upskirting and sharing any such content online is illegal. Under the Online Safety Act, sites and apps must assess the risk of content like this circulating on their services, take steps to stop it appearing and act quickly to remove it when they become aware.’
The Met Police confirmed they would support any victim who came forward to report being filmed inappropriately.
Detective Superintendent Dan Thompson, the Met’s VAWG lead said: ‘Women deserve to feel safe across London and nobody should have to live with the fear of being subjected to this intimidating behaviour. We would urge anyone who has been affected by this, or any other concerning behaviour, to report it to us.
‘Although this incident has not been reported to the Met, we recognise the concern this may cause.’
A government spokesperson said: ‘It is unacceptable that young women and girls are being targeted in this way, filmed without their consent, and exploited by vile individuals.
‘This government will launch a call for evidence this year to better understand online misogynistic image-based abuse and ensure the law keeps pace with emerging harms.
‘We are deploying the full power of the state to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.’
Janaya Walker, Interim Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW): ‘Upskirting is a violation of women and girls’ rights, and also now a criminal offence. The platforms’ decision to collate such videos is appalling – exposing the victims to further harm, whilst endorsing and glorifying such abusive behaviour.
‘The ease of access and scale of abuse shown on platforms like these demonstrates how far we have to go. Much greater action is needed to prevent, regulate and address this form of VAWG.’
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