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Creep shots. They're exactly what they sound like.

Welcome to the world of Creepshots. Imagine something like this.

So there is this series of internet websites that are downright disgusting. Men secretly take photos of the boobs and butts of unsuspecting women – at the shops, at school or in their workplace – and upload them to websites. They (quite aptly) call them ‘creep shots’.

The kink appeal supposedly lies in the fact that the women in the photos don’t know that their bodies are being discussed by hundreds of strangers online.

According to a creep shot discussion page on the website Reddit (which has a following of almost 14,000 people) a creep shot “captures the natural, raw sexiness of the subject without their vain attempts at putting on a show for the camera”.

Can we hand you a bucket yet?

Creep shot pages have been making headlines this week after a teacher in the US was found to be posting pictures of his unaware (and underage) female students.

This from the Huffington Post:

A substitute teacher at a Georgia high school has been fired after he allegedly took photos of a female student in class and posted them to the Internet, authorities said. He is now being investigated by the local Sheriff’s office, Fox Atlanta reports.

The teacher, whose identity has not been released, allegedly posted covert photos of an East Coweta High School student to the “CreepShots” forum on Reddit. The subsection, which carries an “18 and over” disclaimer, is devoted to photos of women taken without their knowledge.

But another user on the site recognised the girl and vowed to turn the man in.

As US website Jezebel explains, it’s illegal for the men to take the shots (both in the states and here in Australia) but it’s not illegal for them to upload them onto the site. Popular discussion website Reddit – where many of these creepy creep shot photographers congregate) has a policy that forbids the suggestive content featuring minors… But has nothing to ban self-confessed ‘creeps’ from uploading pictures of unsuspecting everyday women.

Creeped out yet?

If you’re wearing short shorts — or a miniskirt, or leggings, or a bathing suit — you just might find your photos on r/creepshots.

Even if it were easier to sue for creep shots, Reddit wouldn’t take responsibility; they don’t host the photos. (That’s how they’ve gotten around child pornography allegations in the past.)

Since the teacher mentioned above was fired from his job and made headlines around the world, there have been calls for the Reddit pages to be shut down.

One user posted this message: “What’s particularly disturbing about the voyeur subreddits is that individuals are having their perverse, invasive, and illegal behavior validated and encouraged by many others. Students should be able to attend class without having their privacy violated by fellow students and trusted authority figures like teachers…Girls should be able to go to school without worrying that sexually suggestive images of them are being uploaded to popular websites like Reddit for thousands to view and ogle.”

But others have likened ‘creep shots’ to the paparazzi taking photos of celebrities, saying: “When you are outside and in public space, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

Maybe not. But you have at least have the expectation of human decency.

As yet, there have been no high-profile cases of creep shots in Australia. But it’s the internet, Australians have access to Reddit, and these days almost everyone owns a camera phone…