Call to change law after BBC finds women were covertly filmed on nights out

Covertly filming women on nights out to upload the videos to social media should be made illegal, the Liberal Democrats have said.

The party has put forward a private members' bill calling on the government to update voyeurism legislation to prevent the content from being posted online for profit.

It said the bill would clamp down on what it calls "a covert filming epidemic" and wants the government to force social media platforms to remove such content and permanently ban repeat offenders.

It comes after a BBC investigation exposed dozens of accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. The videos focused almost entirely on women, filmed without their knowledge and taken from low angles or behind, sometimes revealing intimate body parts.

The government said covert filming of women and girls was "vile" and vowed to stop people profiting from it.

The BBC investigation identified nearly 50 women who had been filmed without their knowledge.

Anna-Rose was filmed twice on different nights out in Manchester. Although the original videos have now been removed, copies are still being shared.

"It makes me feel violated," the 29-year-old said. "You think it's gone and it's there again. You just know your face is on someone's phone."

The BBC identified more than 65 channels with this type of content - between them they had more than three billion views over the past three years.

While filming in public is rarely a crime, Wera Hobhouse, Lib Dem MP for Bath, said the videos fall into a "legal grey area" that could break voyeurism and harassment laws.

As a result of the BBC investigation, she has now introduced a private members' bill calling for a change to legislation. "We need to plug the loopholes that allow these men to get away scot-free," she said.

"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.

"The law must be fit for purpose to protect women and girls in the digital world."

"Everyone should feel safe to go out with their friends without the fear they will appear in videos plastered all over the internet."

Dozens of private members' bills are introduced by MPs every year, but only a handful go on to become laws.

At the start of Parliament, 20 MPs are randomly selected to take priority and so their bills are most likely to see progress. Hobhouse is not one of them, meaning her bill will join the back of a long queue.

Following the BBC investigation into so-called nightlife videos, YouTube removed two accounts and said it "rigorously enforces" its community guidelines. It said it removed 1.8 million videos for violating its harassment policies at the end of 2025.

TikTok has removed four channels shared by the BBC. Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram, said it has removed content that violated its policies.

Jess Philips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said covert filming of women and girls was "vile", adding: "Nobody's privacy and safety should ever be up for grabs."