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Through how rapidly the popularity of camera phones grew, it's clear society is compelled to capture moments of our lives quicker than ever before.
Camera phones are an interesting social artefact in understanding the involvement of media within our lives and how technological developments have pioneered a shift from individual artistic to social democratised photography.

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A shift from the individual to the collective 

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A shift from the individual to the collective 

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Within the passed two decades, we have seen a large shift from the individual mindset to the collective. We live in a world of surveillance and lack of privacy, meaning intimate moments of our lives become public simply through the click of your camera button.
For the younger generation, this has become the norm, and we are quickly seeing how much more open they are becoming to sharing their life through images.

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How these crimes made viable through camera phones reflect our societal attitudes 

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How these crimes made viable through camera phones reflect our societal attitudes 

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"The habit or practice of taking upskirt photographs or videos."
OED
Crimes such as upskirting have become increasingly popular since the invention of camera phones. Below are some statistics from gov.uk that reveal the seriousness of this perverted epidemic.
"Upskirting prosecutions more than doubled over the second year of the legislation being in force, with CPS analysis finding at least a third of offenders are also committing other serious sexual crimes.
In total, 46 men and one teenage boy were prosecuted for 128 offences under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2021"
“UPSKIRTING: Public Urged to Report Offenders as Prosecutions Double.” [n.d.]. Gov.uk <https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/upskirting-public-urged-report-offenders-prosecutions-double> [accessed 8 May 2023]

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Upskirting prosecutions more than doubled over the second year of the legislation being in force, with CPS analysis finding at least a third of offenders are also committing other serious sexual crimes.

In total, 46 men and one teenage boy were prosecuted for 128 offences under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2021.

According to our analysis, 15 of the men prosecuted for upskirting since last April were simultaneously charged with other sexual crimes - including child abuse, sexual assault, extreme pornography, and wider voyeurism offences.

Shops, particularly supermarkets, remain by far the most common location for upskirting to take place, accounting for 36 per cent of offences since last spring.

Streets, parks, and public transport or connected areas made up the majority of the remaining locations where crimes occurred.
There were 16 offences where victims were identified as teenage girls, including pupils in school uniforms.

The evidence also shows some men are taking extensive measures to capture images and videos of women without their consent, hiding cameras in shoes or shopping baskets and using photography apps.

In one case, two men who arranged a visit to a shopping centre to upskirt women together and swapped covert images over WhatsApp were also found to have been sharing indecent images of children.

Siobhan Blake, CPS national lead for sexual offence prosecutions, said: "Despite strict social distancing guidelines over past 18 months, it seems offenders have not been deterred from violating women's privacy in a most degrading manner as they go about their daily lives.

"These are disturbing patterns of behaviour, with our analysis showing many men are also committing other serious sexual offences, including child abuse.

"Therefore, I encourage anyone who is a victim or witness of upskirting to immediately report it to the police.

"Not only will the CPS treat your complaint seriously, you may also be helping to protect the public from dangerous sexual predators."

Gina Martin, campaigner, speaker and writer, said: ''From the moment I started collecting stories from victims and survivors I could tell upskirting wasn't something that happens in a vacuum.

"It seemed to me that it was part of a wider continuum of violence and that often it can be a gateway behaviour to more violent forms of assault, or a habitual assault that runs parallel.

"Our need to neatly think of these acts as separate is part of our problem - they are not. I hope the prosecutions from the Voyeurism Act show us that no sexual offence is 'minor' or 'every day'.

"The Voyeurism Act has shown us that every report is critical because you are holding an offender to account, but in many cases a repeat and violent offender, too."

In the two years after the legislation came into force on 12 April 2019, a total of 63 defendants were charged with 175 offences of operating equipment under clothing without consent and recording an image under clothing without consent.

This covers only finalised cases, with the vast majority resulting in conviction after guilty pleas.

Case study 1

School bus driver Robert Woolner, 55, was jailed for 30 months last year after being caught in an undercover police child grooming operation. Officers subsequently found upskirt videos on his phone of schoolgirls leaving the bus he was employed to drive in Hertfordshire.

Case study 2

Sean Correlli Toscanni, 52, was reported to police after a staff member at a Samsung store spotted disturbing images on a phone he had taken in with a query and recognised him as a security guard at a nearby H&M branch. A police examination of the device in July 2019 found he had been upskirting customers in the Newcastle store's changing rooms and uncovered evidence of child sexual abuse. He was jailed for 38 months.
Gina Martin and Siobhan Blake, below, will be discussing upskirting and why it is important to report it on a special episode of The Guilty Feminist released on Friday 3 December at 12pm.

Gina Martin and Siobhan Blake

Notes to editors

Sean Correlli Toscanni (DOB: 15/7/1968), of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, admitted one count of sexual assault of a child under 13, three counts of making indecent images of a child and four counts of recording an image under clothing without consent at Newcastle Crown Court on 15 September 2020

Robert Woolner (DOB: 7/3/1965), of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, admitted one count of attempting to arrange/facilitate the commission of a child sex offence, one count of possession of extreme pornography and three counts of recording an image under clothing without consent. He was sentenced at St Albans Crown Court on 17 July 2020

The data referred to in this analysis covers completed prosecutions - i.e., where a case has ended in a conviction or been withdrawn - up to June 2021. It does not include cases with a trial or sentencing outstanding and many more live prosecutions are likely to be in the system

Official criminal justice outcome statistics are kept by the Ministry of Justice.

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UPSKIRTING: Public urged to report offenders as prosecutions double

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Upskirting prosecutions more than doubled over the second year of the legislation being in force, with CPS analysis finding at least a third of offenders are also committing other serious sexual crimes. In total, 46 men and one teenage boy were prosecuted for 128 offences under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2021.

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The discrete nature of a phone camera in the wrong hands is a catalyst for invasions of people's privacy.
From people taking intimate photos of others without their consent, to photos circulating the internet without the owner's permission, camera phones have allowed people's privacy to be invaded like never before.

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Movements propelled by Citizen Journalism.

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Movements propelled by Citizen Journalism.

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1. BLM movement

In May 2020, disturbing images from civilians circled the internet of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Police brutality. This caused worldwide protests, sparking an anti racism movement across the globe.
"This has been happening for years and to finally be able to speak up about it and feel like I'm doing something to help means alot" -quote from female in BLM UK protest captured on an I Phone camera
CBS News. 2021. “Black Lives Matter around the World: The Global Impact of George Floyd,” CBS News <https://www.cbsnews.com/video/black-lives-matter-around-the-world-the-global-impact-of-george-floyd/> [accessed 8 May 2023]

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Black Lives Matter around the world: The global impact of George Floyd

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In the summer of 2020, George Floyd's death sparked widespread Black Lives Matter protests across the United States. The movement also reverberated around the globe, sending shockwaves through dozens of countries like France, New Zealand, Colombia and the United Kingdom and leaving a lasting impact on Black communities abroad, which continues today.

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With social media and camera phones being available to everyone, citizen journalism can lead to misinformation and propaganda being widely spread.
A relevant example of this is 21st century America, a country strongly divided between the left an the right.
I widened my research into the disadvantages of citizen journalism by watching journalist Louis Theroux's "Extreme and Online" documentary. An episode in which Theroux interviews far right activists who promote an ideology of racism, misogyny and anti-antisemitism, who gained platforms through filming themselves on their camera phones.

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Series 1: 2. Rap's New Frontline

Louis Theroux heads to Florida to immerse himself in the world of rap. ...

Louis Theroux heads to Florida to immerse himself in the world of rap.

59 mins Available for over a year

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Louis Theroux's Forbidden America - Series 1: 1. Extreme and Online

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Series 1: 2. Rap's New Frontline Louis Theroux heads to Florida to immerse himself in the world of rap. ... Louis Theroux heads to Florida to immerse himself in the world of rap. 59 mins Available for over a year

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Camera phones are a large reason why citizen journalism provides our once non existent platform of marginalised members of society.
This photographic "proof" of events captured allows these voices to have validity, which on a larger scale challenges power structures and holds government and powerful members of society accountable.

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"a non-professional journalist working outside traditional media channels; esp. a member of the public using the internet and social media to publish news items or commentary"-
“Home : Oxford English Dictionary.” [n.d.]. Oed.com <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/33513?redirectedFrom=citizen+journalism> [accessed 8 May 2023]

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The OED is the definitive record of the English language, featuring 600,000 words, 3 million quotations, and over 1,000 years of English.

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On page 88 of Susan Sontag's 'On photography' she writes "nobody takes the same picture of the same thing’, so photographs are evidence not only of what’s there but of what an individual sees, not just a record but an evaluation of the world"
Sontag sheds light on how the photographs we choose to take are a reflection on how we view the world. The differences between people's photographs, and the subject they are photographing can allow you to read the person behind the camera.
Despite this book being published in 1977, its words are more prevalent in today's society due to the invention and popularity of the camera phone and social media. Never before has it been so easy have an insight into someone's "evaluation of the world" by simply looking at their social media, and the images they choose to take and share.
Sontag, Susan. 1977. On Photography (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux)p.88

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"One  important  function  of  personal photography,  one  that  extends  its  existence  as  a  material  prosthesis  for  personal memory, is the role it plays as an aid to storytelling. "
This article by Lisa Gye sheds light on the social impact of photography, and what drives us to share our photos socially. How this innate human desire to "story tell" is enabled through the platform of social media. It allows us to share our personal memories in a selective manner, and be in control of our personal narrative through our selection of the photographs we share.
Lisa, Gye, Picture This: the Impact of Mobile:Camera Phones on Personal Photographic Practices (Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural StudiesVol. 21, No. 2, June 2007) pp. 279–288

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In 2004, Flixar was popularised for its ability to share images and videos.

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Why did Camera Phones gain such popularity so fast?

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Why did Camera Phones gain such popularity so fast?

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We are constantly exposed to advertisements of Camera phones, displaying a hyperbolic representation of the pictures that can be produced using these phones.
Vice president David Hewitt says  “What brands like Amazon are doing is starting to light little fires about how these technologies and cloud-based intelligence platforms are creating momentum to take out the friction in our everyday lives, and of course, add delight where they can,” 5
Through such advertisements, companies were able to share these idealistic perceptions of reality through documenting our lives through photography, which then for many became the general allure of social media, a means in which we are able to portray our lives socially through a selective manner.
Koltun, Natalie. 2017. “Smartphone Cameras’ Marketing Potential Comes into Focus,” Marketing Dive <https://www.marketingdive.com/news/smartphone-cameras-marketing-potential-comes-into-focus/445438/> [accessed 9 May 2023]

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This image was captured earlier however in 1997 by Philippe Kahn, who created a software interface from a digital camera, laptop, LSD display and a Motorola StarTAC flip phone in order to take a photo of his newborn child to share with his family and friends.
This is one of the first reported incidences in which a person's desire to share personal moments combined with technological creativity propelled the technological revolution of camera phones..
A historical insight to the future of photography using mobile phones.
Simon, Hill, A complete history of the Camera phone (digital trends, 2013)
<https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/camera-phone-history/> [accessed 8th May 2023]

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2. The impact of social media using images and videos 

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2. The impact of social media using images and videos 

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Once simply a means to communicate via messages or calls, in 1999 Japan released the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, a phone marketed as a device to capture photographs.
It wasn't until the early 2000s in which Camera Phones became regularly available and grew in popularity after Nokia released it's first camera phone in 2004.