WASHINGTON – Camera phones may make great Christmas gifts, but people had better not use them for peeping-Tom photos on federal property.
In one of its last moves of the year, Congress passed a bill that would levy heavy fines and prison time for anyone who sneaks photos or videos of people in various stages of undress and puts them on the Internet, a problem lawmakers and activists called the new frontier of stalking.
While camera phone voyeurism probably won’t be high on the list of federal crimes the FBI and other federal agencies pursue, “at least in theory there is now federal protection available so people can’t unknowingly have their private parts photographed, downloaded and transmitted around the world,” said Hanan Kolko, a New York civil liberties lawyer.
The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign, would make it a crime to videotape or photograph the naked or underwear-covered private parts of a person without consent when the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Conviction could lead to a fine of up to $100,000 or imprisonment for up to one year, or both.
The measure was approved by voice votes in both chambers of Congress, the House on Sept. 21 and the Senate on Tuesday.
The legislation would apply only in federal jurisdictions, such as federal buildings, national parks or military bases, but it carves out exceptions for law enforcement, intelligence and prison work.
The use of “nanny cams” and other hidden recording devices such as pinhole cameras have been favorites of peeping Toms for years, lawmakers say. But the proliferation of tiny cellphones that can take pictures silently and shoot video has taken the crime out of bedrooms and bathrooms and into public places such as grocery stores, sidewalks and restaurants.
Some people then transfer the photos to Internet sites featuring what are called “upskirting” and “downblousing,” lawmakers said.
While secretly photographing people in compromising positions is against the law in some states – Florida and South Dakota instituted camera-phone voyeurism laws in July, for example – “what this does is set a national standard,” Kolko said.
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