Patients visiting cosmetic clinics in Taiwan may never have imagined that their bodies could become targets of covert surveillance — or that intimate footage of them might enter an illegal market for voyeuristic content.
Taiwan has been shaken by a series of hidden-camera scandals at cosmetic surgery clinics. The discovery that patients were secretly filmed without consent has alarmed consumers across the country, particularly in the wake of the 2024 "Taiwan's version of Nth Room" case, in which illegally obtained intimate images were sold on the online forum "Creative Private Room" (創意私房).
The problem extends beyond Taiwan. In February of this year, a hotel hidden-camera scandal emerged in China, where a victim discovered footage of himself on a voyeurism platform. Earlier, the BBC's investigative unit "BBC Eye Investigations" exposed a cross-border "chikan" (groping and covert filming) industry spanning China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.
Across Asia, the dark-web voyeurism supply chain has become a serious digital crime problem. Content ranges from covert recording to sexual assault footage. What compounds the harm is that such material, once uploaded online, causes repeated and potentially irreversible damage to victims. The Storm Media interviewed Gill Wu (吳姿瑩), Executive Secretary of the Modern Women's Foundation (現代婦女基金會), and Fang Nien-hsuan (方念萱), Associate Professor at the College of Communication at National Chengchi University (政治大學傳播學院) and a long-term researcher on digital sexual violence, to examine both legal frameworks and voyeuristic culture — and how Taiwan might better address a growing illegal industry.
How Did Taiwan's Cosmetic Clinic Voyeurism Scandal Come to Light?
Airlee Group (愛爾麗集團), a well-known cosmetic surgery chain with 18 branches across Taiwan, was engulfed in a hidden-camera scandal in early May. Branches across the country have since been investigated by local authorities. On May 6, the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office detained Airlee's chairman Chang Ju-shan (常如山), a personal assistant surnamed Chang, and a supplier surnamed Hsieh. All three were subsequently placed in pre-trial detention, with the court approving prosecutors' requests after finding probable cause on charges including violations of sexual privacy, breach of secrecy, and the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act.
The scandal came to light because of one observant patient. While changing clothes in a private treatment room, she noticed a suspicious device in the corner of the ceiling. When she asked clinic staff, she was told it was a "smoke detector." Unconvinced, she photographed the device and conducted a reverse image search at home. The search revealed it was not a smoke detector at all, but a surveillance camera disguised as one — a product available for purchase on Amazon. She returned to the clinic to demand an explanation and filed a police report, triggering the wider investigation.
The patient shared her experience on Threads. Initially, a number of commenters dismissed her concerns as overreaction. Yet it was precisely her refusal to accept the clinic's explanation that exposed the illegal surveillance. Her disclosure proved to be only the beginning: in its wake, several other cosmetic clinic groups — including SaintEir Clinic (聖宜), Yanyimien (研醫明), and DR.SHINE (光澤) — faced similar allegations, sending alarm through the sector.
How Far Has the Investigation Spread Across Taiwan?
The Airlee case set off a nationwide response. Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare (衛福部) has directed all local health bureaus to conduct comprehensive inspections of high-risk cosmetic medical facilities. Dozens of clinics have been implicated, including DR.SHINE and SaintEir. Multiple branches have been fined and ordered to suspend operations for six months.
| New Taipei City | The Airlee branch in Banciao — where the original complaint was filed — is located in New Taipei City. Authorities launched an "Anti-Hidden Camera Inspection Project" on May 8, completing inspections of 64 cosmetic clinics by May 28. In addition to the Banciao branch, three other Airlee locations — in Xinzhuang, Yonghe, and Linkou — were found to have used disguised surveillance devices in treatment and operating rooms to record patients. New Taipei City authorities invoked Article 108 of the Medical Care Act (醫療法), imposing fines of approximately USD 16,300 and ordering six-month suspensions for each location. Four branches of Lesvi Clinic (樂菲時尚診所) were also found to have smoke-detector-style surveillance equipment in treatment and operating rooms; the cases have been referred to the District Prosecutors Office for investigation. Three DR.SHINE Clinic branches (in Banciao Zhongshan, DR.SHINE, and Xinzhuang) were confirmed to have used hidden cameras; each was fined approximately USD 16,300 and ordered to suspend operations for six months. The Zhongshan branch manager, surnamed Chen, and the head of information development, surnamed Tang, were detained. The clinic's operator had left for China before the scandal broke and has not appeared in person, issuing only a statement pledging to cooperate with the judicial investigation. Related businesses associated with DR.SHINE— including a traditional Chinese medicine clinic and a hot-stone spa — are also under investigation. The New Taipei City Health Bureau noted that other clinics suspected of involvement remain under judicial investigation. The bureau has also opened a dedicated "Cosmetic Clinic Dispute Channel" for the public to report suspicious recording devices. |
Taipei City | Taipei City authorities announced penalties on May 15. The Airlee Da'an and Nanjing branches were found in violation of the Medical Care Act and fined a combined total of approximately USD 40,700, with both ordered to close for six months. The DR.SHINE Zhongxiao branch was also found to have violated patient privacy, resulting in a fine of approximately USD 16,300 and a six-month suspension. |
Taoyuan City | The Taoyuan and Zhongli branches of SaintEir Clinic (聖宜診所) were searched by police and prosecutors on May 11. Recording equipment and client data were seized; criminal investigations are ongoing. |
Taichung City | Taichung City Government announced on May 15 that it had inspected 40 medical clinics and found hidden surveillance equipment in four cosmetic clinic branches. Two Airlee branches in Taichung were confirmed to contain surveillance devices. Lesvi Clinic was found to have multiple suspicious cavities in its interior and has been referred to prosecutors on suspicion of breach of secrecy. Two SaintEir branches and DR.SHINE's Taichung location were confirmed to have engaged in illegal recording and have been heavily penalized and referred to judicial authorities. |
Tainan City | A hidden-camera device was discovered in the beauty room of the Yanyimien Cosmetic Clinic (研醫明醫美診所) in the Central-West District on May 9. The clinic's operator and store manager have been released on bail. No violations have yet been confirmed at Airlee's Tainan branch. |
Kaohsiung City | Kaohsiung City authorities confirmed that two Airlee branches in the city had recorded patients' private body parts in violation of the law, and ordered both to suspend operations for six months. During a subsequent unannounced inspection of Jingchi (君綺美型診所), authorities counted 27 surveillance cameras, of which 8 were capable of capturing patients' intimate areas without their knowledge. The clinic was fined approximately USD 16,300 and ordered to close for six months under the Medical Care Act. DR.SHINE's Boai branch in Kaohsiung was also found to have recorded patients' private areas; police have called on affected patients to come forward. |
Beyond cosmetic clinics, on May 18 a clothing store at LaLaport shopping mall was reported by a customer to have a surveillance camera positioned to capture the changing room. On May 29, it emerged that an outsider had installed a hidden camera in a women's restroom at the National Taipei University of Education. These successive incidents have deepened public unease about surveillance in shared spaces.
Are Proposed Regulations Enough? Legislators Weigh Controls on Hidden-Camera Sales
Legislators across party lines have called for new legal measures. Opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers have proposed a draft "Act on the Management and Prevention of Voyeurism Using Concealed Recording Devices" (隱藏式攝影器材管理及防制窺視法), which would require real-name registration for the purchase of relevant equipment. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators have also proposed amending the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法) to mandate a real-name system for hidden-camera purchases, and to require e-commerce platforms to remove all smoke-detector-type surveillance products from sale.
However, public awareness of the illegal supply chain behind leaked intimate images has grown considerably since the "Creative Private Room" case was first exposed in 2021, and subsequently when celebrity Mickey Huang (黃子佼) was found to be implicated in 2023. In the current cosmetic clinic scandal, many observers have noted that footage from these devices likely flows onto the internet and into difficult-to-trace anonymous Telegram groups — suggesting that controlling the sale of recording equipment alone would be insufficient to dismantle the underlying illegal industry.
Gill Wu (吳姿瑩), Executive Secretary of the Modern Women's Foundation (現代婦女基金會), told The Storm Media that equipment controls and real-name purchase requirements are one line of defense: they can bring such devices into the open and reduce crimes of opportunity. But they are not a complete solution; covert filming cannot be eradicated simply by regulating sales. Wu recommended that the government move beyond equipment and require cosmetic clinics, changing rooms, and other vulnerable venues to establish proactive anti-surveillance standards and inspection protocols with corresponding enforcement and penalty mechanisms.
"Revenge Porn" Has Become a Genre — With a Consumer Base to Match
Fang Nien-hsuan (方念萱), Associate Professor at the College of Communication at National Chengchi University and a long-term researcher on digital sexual violence, was more direct. Focusing solely on recording equipment, she argued, is "far from enough" — it addresses only one link in a broader cultural chain. With smartphones now ubiquitous, cameras have effectively replaced the human gaze. They are,as Fang put it, omnipresent. Regulating specific devices cannot address filming that can occur anywhere, with any device.
Fang stressed that covert filming is not only about recording — it is also about distribution. As technology has advanced, images taken on a phone or any camera device are rapidly uploaded to the cloud. "When we use technology, the lens is connected to a boundless cloud," Fang said. "Traffic flows through that cloud constantly, with an endless stream of people seeking access — which is precisely why so many people are more frightened than ever." The culture of hunting for voyeuristic images, and the illegal commercial networks that emerge from it, are dimensions of the problem that government must take seriously, she argued. Fang recommended that prosecutors and investigators focus on prosecuting the monetization of non-consensually distributed intimate images and tracing the financial flows behind such activity.
Fang also argued that society needs to reckon with what she described as a "voyeuristic predatory culture". Covert filming has now developed into a scaled commercial enterprise. She noted that "revenge porn" — the non-consensual distribution of intimate images — has become a distinct genre within the pornography industry. "Just as written literature has poetry, prose, fiction, detective stories, and science fiction, in the world of images, when revenge porn has become a genre — whether through illegal covert footage or footage deliberately made to look amateurish — that signals a consumer base on the other end." Confronting hidden-camera incidents, she argued, requires acknowledging the organized commercial networks that have grown up around them.
From Taiwan to the United Kingdom: Women Make Up Around 80% of Victims
According to data published in 2026 by the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation (婦女救援基金會), Taiwan recorded 470 sexual image-related cases in 2025. Female victims accounted for 87% of the total. Adults represented 59% of victims; minors accounted for 40%. The most common relationship between perpetrator and victim was "unspecified" (27%), followed by "current or former partner" (22%), and "online acquaintance" (13%). The primary reported motive was "personal gratification" (56%), followed by "intimidation" (10%), financial profit (7%), and intimate partner revenge (8%).
This is not a phenomenon unique to Taiwan. The United Kingdom's Revenge Porn Helpline reported 22,275 cases of non-consensual intimate image sharing in 2024 — a 20.9% increase from 18,421 cases in 2023, and a record high since the organization's founding. Analysis indicates that approximately 1.42% of adult women in the UK experience non-consensual intimate image (NCII) abuse annually. In cases where the perpetrator's identity was confirmed, over 81% were male. Current or former partners accounted for 58.4% of perpetrators; acquaintances for 22.7%; and 8.9% were linked to criminal organizations, indicating the involvement of organized crime.
According to a submission to the UK Parliament citing Revenge Porn Helpline data, sextortion was the most frequently reported category of harm, accounting for 22.7% of all cases. In 2024, the number of images reported in connection with ongoing legacy cases reached 61,213 — a 260% increase from 2023, reflecting the long-term and compounding nature of the harm.
Since its founding in 2015, the Revenge Porn Helpline has seen total caseloads rise from approximately 1,600 in 2019 to over 22,000 in 2024 — a twelvefold increase. Although the takedown success rate exceeds 90%, approximately 30,000 images remain online and cannot be removed due to jurisdictional boundaries and non-cooperation from overseas platforms.
FBI data also indicate a rising trend in sextortion cases. Between October 2024 and March 2025, reported sextortion cases increased by 30% — with analysts noting that the true figure is likely considerably higher.
Across Asia, large-scale covert filming supply chains have been exposed in South Korea, China, and Taiwan, demonstrating that voyeurism has evolved beyond individual acts of privacy invasion into an illegal industry with functioning supply and demand dynamics.
Earlier this year, the BBC published an investigation revealing an organized hidden-camera industry in China, in which surveillance devices concealed in large numbers of hotels captured footage that was not only recorded but live-streamed to paying viewers. South Korea's "N-Room" case exposed a paid Telegram group that sold footage of women recorded under sexual coercion. Taiwan's analogous case involved the pornographic online forum "Creative Private Room" — a platform founded by a Chinese national known as "Lao Ma" (老馬) that similarly recruited members via Telegram. Prominent Taiwanese entertainer Mickey Huang (黃子佼) was among those identified as a member.
Taiwan's Fragmented Support System Forces Victims to Retell Their Stories Repeatedly
Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare currently operates a Sexual Image Abuse Reporting Center (性影像處理中心) to assist victims with content takedowns. However, pursuing removal through the offshore platform Telegram is difficult and rarely comprehensive. The reporting and administrative procedures remain complex. Compared with South Korea — widely regarded as one of the most proactive jurisdictions on intimate image removal — Taiwan's support infrastructure has room for improvement.
South Korea's National Center for Digital Sexual Crime Response (NCDSCR) has been operated since 2018 by the Women's Human Rights Institute of Korea (WHRIK) under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The center coordinates with police and the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) to address intimate image abuse and sexual exploitation imagery. It also uses a proprietary "DNA" image-detection system developed by a South Korean software firm in 2019 to improve detection efficiency.
Wu pointed out that Taiwan's current service structure is fragmented. A victim seeking to address a leaked intimate image must separately contact multiple agencies — the Sexual Image Processing Center for takedown requests, a local police station to file a report, and a domestic violence prevention center for social work support. Wu recommended drawing on international experience to establish an integrated platform through which a victim would need to recount their experience only once, avoiding secondary trauma caused by repeated disclosure.
Wu gave a concrete example: if a victim of intimate image leakage subsequently faces stalking or threats, and the relevant data is already cross-linked in government systems, the victim would not need to re-explain the entire background of the original incident when filing the follow-up report. Wu recommended that the government build a cross-agency image and intelligence database, arguing that interconnected data would help authorities conduct faster cross-referencing and strengthen overall investigative capacity.
Fang acknowledged that she cannot guarantee every frontline officer is fully equipped, but said that, in her understanding, the attitude and handling of police and prosecutors during the reporting process has improved significantly compared to several years ago. For victims seeking to protect themselves, Fang recommended preserving all available evidence — including screenshots, images, timestamps, and IP addresses where possible. Given the psychological toll, she also recommended that victims seek the accompaniment of a social worker when filing a report. "Organizations such as the Taiwan Women's Rescue Foundation, the Modern Women's Foundation, or the Garden of Hope Foundation all have experienced social workers with knowledge of the subsequent procedures and legal protections available to victims," Fang said.
"Does Looking Take Anything Away?" — The Second and Third Waves of Harm
Victims of covert filming whose intimate images are subsequently distributed frequently face secondary harm from the public or from people they know. Fang noted that research she has participated in on digital gender-based violence found that non-heterosexual male victims account for a surprisingly high proportion of cases. Yet when gay men or influencers are victimized, she observed, there is often a social bias suggesting the image leak was a deliberate self-promotional strategy — that victims are showing off their bodies or seeking clicks. This kind of dismissiveness, she argued, constitutes serious secondary harm.
Fang also noted that victims of intimate image leaks often live with persistent fear and anxiety, and that this vulnerability can make them targets for online fraudsters posing as helpers. These operators claim they can remove the images while in fact using the approach to extract additional intimate photos or money, creating a cascade of repeated harms.
More broadly, contemporary culture's tendency to treat private images as public material has eroded social sensitivity to the concept of consent. People browsing images online tend not to ask about their origin — they do not consider whether an image involved violence or a violation. This habit of consumption without inquiry, Fang argued, enables harm to spread further.
The Modern Women's Foundation previously produced a documentary titled Being There (在場證明), examining the long-term psychological and practical impact of image-based sexual violence on victims, and documenting how institutional structures and public attitudes contribute to secondary harm. Foundation Executive Secretary Wu said: "People tend to think — what's the big deal about someone looking? Nothing was cut off; no one died; there was no blood. So it can't be that serious." Yet the anxiety of not knowing who might harm you next — these are harms that outsiders rarely comprehend.
The Qingtiangang Incident: A Mirror to Public Attitudes on Consent
The cosmetic clinic scandal prompted considerable public calls for accountability. Yet Fang pointed to a telling counterexample that emerged shortly after: at Qingtiangang (擎天崗) on Yangmingshan, a couple engaged in sexual activity outdoors in the middle of the night were filmed by an official government surveillance camera, and the footage was broadcast online. Unlike the clinic victims, whose status as victims was unambiguous, this couple became objects of public mockery and voyeuristic interest — because they were deemed guilty of "public indecency."
Fang argued that the contrast reveals something important about how society actually relates to non-consensual image distribution. In both cases, intimate footage was shared without the subjects' consent. But the public response diverged sharply: one case generated outrage; the other, entertainment. "You can see from this," Fang said, "that the attitude toward viewing footage obtained without consent is essentially one of curiosity and spectacle." She also noted that reactions of this kind — treating someone else's non-consensual exposure as a source of collective amusement — can trigger trauma responses in people who have previously suffered from intimate image leaks.
A Culture of Surveillance, from Birth: The Roots of the "Don't Ask Where It Came From" Problem
The large-scale cosmetic clinic voyeurism scandal has deepened public distrust of shared spaces — particularly among women. For Fang, these events open a space for a larger question: what kind of digital culture do we actually want?
We have entered an era, Fang observed, in which everyone lifts their phone to record. The camera has replaced the human gaze and become, in her words, "omnipresent." This reflects what she calls a voyeuristic predatory culture — a habit of using the lens to enter directly into other people's physical space, with no sense of boundaries.
Fang also observed that human beings are now recorded before they are even born. She referenced the opening chapter of the book REBOOT: Reclaiming Your Life in a Tech-Obsessed World — titled "Digital Gestation" — which notes that ultrasound images are posted online before a child arrives, and gender reveal parties generate extensive digital footprints for people who do not yet exist.
"Before a person is even born, their digital image is already everywhere online, already being discussed by others." This, Fang argued, reflects how deeply normalized the public circulation of private images has become in everyday culture. She is not condemning the impulse to share the joy of new parenthood — but pointing to how habitual, unchecked sharing has drastically lowered society's sensitivity to consent. Content found online is increasingly treated as simply public, available for use.
The internet has become, in Fang's framing, a vast marketplace in which people reach for others' material without a second thought — severing any connection to the actual person in the image. Taiwan's early internet communities developed a culture of collective doxxing — crowd-sourcing the real-world identity of a person in a viral image. Even when such attention takes the form of complimenting someone's appearance or body, it remains a violation of bodily autonomy, because the person never consented to the image being seen or discussed. Addressing covert filming and the commercial networks it feeds therefore requires not only stronger laws, Fang concluded, but education — teaching people to ask where images come from, and to recognize the person behind them. （Related： Taiwan Can Build Satellites. Can It Build a Space Power? ｜ Latest ）
