New Cams, Web Sites Fuel 'Upskirting' Trend

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Web sites displaying secretly shot images and video from under women's skirts are apparently helping fuel a trend called "upskirting," according to a Local 6 News report.

Upskirting is usually carried out by men carrying hidden cell phone or mini-cams in bags. They stand close to unknowing women wearing skirts and film their underwear or thighs. Often, the images are then posted on Web sites.

The practice has become so popular that an Internet search for the term "upskirting" revealed more than 1 million Web sites, according to the report.

Also, tips on acquiring tools for upskirting and the tactics to use them are traded freely online with suggestions ranging from how to upskirt on trains and cars to finding the perfect mini-cam for perverse pursuits.

"This is a game and one-upmanship for better and riskier depictions and pictures of people in a variety of different situations," F&P Forensics Associates Timothy Foley said.

Local 6 featured a teen who was secretly filmed while wearing a skirt.

"He had a bag and he was going like this (swings bag), the girl's mother said. "He wasn't touching her. He was just going like this and he had a camera rigged out of the bottom of it with the lens sticking up.

"The law has been slow following this trend," Local 6 News reporter Chris Trenkmann said. "Only 12 states have laws banning upskirting and Florida is not one of them. Our law applies only if there is an assault."

Local 6 News reported that if you are filmed in a mall, on the street or in a park, it may be perfectly legal. --