# Whatever happened to tanning bed/public restroom hidden camera porn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2016, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560 "2016-07-22T05:24:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560/1 "2016-07-22T05:24:12Z")
I remember back in the late 90s, this seemed like a major genre of internet porn. Sites would claim to have hidden cameras in tanning salons and inside the toilet bowls of public restrooms and you could pay money to get a “live” stream of naked women being filmed unaware. I had totally forgotten about this until it just randomly popped into my head today but it seems so strange I almost don’t trust my memory. I remember this was like, a major, established genre of porn back then and there were a ton of different sites which all specialized in it. Then, somehow, it just sank without a trace and I can’t remember seeing anything like it in the vast volumes of modern porn. Can someone reassure me that I’m not crazy and didn’t make the whole thing up and what the hell was up with that craze and what happened to it? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560/2 "2016-07-22T05:31:25Z")
At a guess, “voyeur porn” as a genre (i.e. paid actors who pretend to be just going about their regular business) turned out to be less hassle, less expensive, less boring and posed a lower risk of legal trouble than trying to really catch people unaware. Google indicates “voyeur porn” is alive and well. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560/3 "2016-07-22T05:55:36Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Google indicates “voyeur porn” is alive and well. Yep. Go to any porn site that has the typical long list of categories at the bottom of the main page, “voyeur” is usually one of them. And they try hard. Black and white video, vignetted to be like seeing through a peekhole, etc. I saw one that had the camera going back and forth behind some leaves. But usually the same classic scripts: delivery boy, auntie catches me jerking off, the plumber, etc. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560/4 "2016-07-22T07:10:19Z")
You’re jerking off the plumber? Guess you gotta pay the bill somehow ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560/5 "2016-07-22T09:47:38Z")
The genuine stuff still exists but it’s mostly Russian, Japanese, or Czech. The staged or “reality” stuff is out there, but it’s just a genre that isn’t all that popular or fun to make, is my guess. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560/6 "2016-07-22T15:01:21Z")
And there’s a large body of “massage” porn. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560/7 "2016-07-22T15:04:07Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > And there’s a large body of “massage” porn. Talk about rubbing one out. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-tanning-bed-public-restroom-hidden-camera-porn/760560/8 "2016-07-22T21:45:32Z")
Remember all the excitement about cameras with night vision? They could give fuzzy body images through clothing. There was a lot of this stuff posted in the nineties. I never understood the interest. It only worked with certain fabrics. IR photos are not exactly life like. I saw a few photos and quickly lost interest. Boring. But it created enough excitement that the manufacturers modified the cameras. The night vision feature is disabled in daylight. Ending a odd type of voyuer porn. To answer the OP. There was a brief period (in the nineties)when the new miniature cameras could be legally used to create up skirt photos, bathroom, bedroom, changing room, and other voyeur porn. Technology had evolved faster than local laws. Within a few years the laws caught up. Up skirting and other voyeur photography is illegal almost everywhere. Now the new stuff uses actors.