It was a typical Monday evening when I joined the throng of commuters on the Tube, all silently congratulating ourselves on surviving day one back in the office. As I stood by the doors, mindlessly scrolling through my phone, I became aware of two men in black puffer jackets – I’d guess they were around 18 or 19 – boxing me in nearby. They were taking selfies – and deliberately getting me in the background. It was evident by the way the man holding the phone was angling it, far higher than necessary in order to capture me seemingly unaware. I turned my face away, debating whether or not to politely say something, then gradually reabsorbed myself on my phone.
Until I noticed the camera snapping again. And I snapped too.
“Can you stop taking pictures of me, please?” I asked the phone-holder, heart thumping and hoping someone else on the carriage might speak up. “I don’t want to be on your Snapchat and I don’t consent to it.”
He took another photo, I repeated my request and the man began parroting everything I was saying to his friend, imitating me, avoiding eye contact and locking in solely on his mate. “Why are you filming her, yeah,” he mocked. “It’s not respectful, bruv.”
Then he looked me in the eyes and retorted: “I can take a picture of whoever I want in public, it’s legal.”
I fantasised about smashing his phone under my heel – which depressingly would probably have only resulted in me being punished for criminal damage. Because infuriatingly, he was right. There is no law preventing people from taking photographs or videos of you in public, children included (though consistently photographing or filming without consent may be considered harassment or stalking).
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Criminal defence solicitor and Managing Partner of Eventum Legal, Jessica Wilson, explains, “If you are in a public space (on the street, on public transport or in a town centre, for example), anyone can legally point a camera and record what’s in their view. There is no ‘image right’ or blanket ban on photographing people without their consent.”
She adds that if the behaviour persists it may amount to harassment, or if the footage is misused then other legal protections, such as the Human Rights Act or the Data Protection Act, can apply.
Still, Wilson says, it is “striking that the law treats ‘one-off non-intimate recordings in genuinely public spaces’ as lawful in itself, even where the behaviour is deeply disrespectful, objectifying and distressing to the person being filmed. So even if a woman feels uncomfortable, a single occurrence does not constitute a criminal offence.
“The general public should be aware that there is no automatic right not to be filmed in public, but if the behaviour is persistent, targeted or sexually intrusive or causes alarm or distress, it can amount to harassment, stalking or voyeurism.”
This was not the first time a man has filmed me in public minus permission and sadly, I’m not alone in having had these experiences: 13% of women say they’ve been harassed in the last twelve months according to government data (a figure nearly double that of men) and a UN Women UK survey found that 71% of all women have experienced some form of sexual harassment in a public space during the course of their life. This figure rose to 86% for women aged between 18 and 24, and many cited a lack of trust in police and worrying the incident wasn’t serious enough as reporting deterrents.
A new BBC investigation has exposed that men are covertly filming women on nights out, from deliberately low and exploitative angles, and uploading the footage to YouTube, where the videos amass six-figure viewers and generate profit for the voyeur. The women left none the wiser.
Elsewhere, we’re seeing men approach women and ask for their number while wearing smart glasses which have a built-in recording device, then posting the interaction online trussed up as ‘rejection therapy’ or hashtagged as ‘rizzgod’ (rizz meaning… charisma). While laws around smart glasses stipulate they must have a visible red light when recording, users have found workaround the adopt them for nefarious purposes such as this.
“The worst part is the feeling of powerlessness: you know something violating is happening, but you also know that simply filming or photographing someone in public isn’t treated as a clear offence. Amy Watson, founder of HASSL, an organisation dedicated to tackling the root causes of harassment and violence against women, tells Cosmopolitan UK. “That legal grey area is exactly why this behaviour thrives.”
Watson puts this latest trend in sexual harassment down to “part cultural normalisation, part technology” She says: “Phones make filming effortless, and social media rewards ‘content’ – even when that content is a stranger who didn’t consent,” says Watson. “And with wearable tech, it’s getting harder to even tell when you’re being recorded.
Often, these non-consensual interactions (strike one!) result in abusive comments levelled towards the unsuspecting women (strike two!) featured in these social media clips, who dared to politely reject a man.
This double-impact was writ large when 22-year-old Isobel appeared on Good Morning Britain to share how she was filmed by a man who approached while she was walking home alone in the late evening. “He framed it as ‘I find you attractive, I’d like to take you out, can I get your number’. I was quite upfront and told him no thank you,” Isobel shared. “We shook hands, we went on with our day. Then he stopped me again, tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘I’m a social media influencer, content creator, and I approach women to boost men’s confidence. I post videos online of me doing so’ [...] Then he points to his glasses and says ‘I’ve been recording the whole time’.”
Alongside this intimidating experience, the comments in response to the interview were dismissive of her valid reaction. Responses ranged from “Then you wonder why men don’t talk to women” to “So being honest with you is wrong? He literally told you who he was and what he did. Not really the best argument…” and “Being annoyed isn't illegal and it's not a safety issue”.
Liberal Democrat MP, Dame Wera Hobhouse, who in the past has successfully campaigned to make upskirting (taking a photo up someone’s skirt without consent) a criminal offence, is working hard to get non-consensual filming on the government’s agenda. As an initial step, Hobhouse is tabling an amendment to the Images (Non-consensual Recording and Distribution) Bill which would “make it an offence to non-consensually record and distribute images of a person online for profit with the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification or of causing humiliation or distress to that person.”
Hobhouse said of her campaign, “Secretly filming women for profit is a sickening and cowardly act, and those responsible should be held accountable. We need to plug the loopholes that allow these men to get away scot-free. The government must urgently tighten voyeurism laws to make clear that sexualised, covert filming and posting footage online is a criminal offence, and force platforms to take this content down fast.”
HASSL stresses that we need to pivot the conversation to asking ‘how can we get men and boys to stop thinking this is acceptable behaviour’, rather than advising women how to behave in response, but she does stress: “We don’t recommend confronting the perpetrator as it can put you in danger or escalate the situation for the person being targeted,” says Watson. Though, she adds, “We do promote bystander intervention where possible.”
She adds it is still worth noting down the time, location, what happened, description, and if safe, taking a photo of the person (not a confrontation video), or doing this for someone else if you’re a witness. “Although it’s not a crime, this information could add evidence if this person has committed other forms of harassment/assault that are criminal.”
As the Tube pulled up at my stop that Monday night, leaving me filled with rage and feeling utterly powerless, I heard another voice. “She said stop filming her!” It was another young woman, trying to fight my corner. “Stop it man, she doesn’t give you permission.” As the doors closed behind me, the men started going back at her, and I felt guilt in my stomach that I’d just left another woman to deal with a fallout I’d started. Then I remembered, the men could easily have just stopped taking photographs when I asked them to, and I walked off hoping someone else would have her back as she had mine, since the law still doesn’t.
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Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
