EACH year millions of sun-seeking tourists flock to this European coastal city to soak up the rays on packed-out beaches.
But as women relax on the golden sand of this Spanish holiday destination a deeply disturbing trend is unfolding right under their noses – and they may not realise until thousands of strangers have already gawped at their bikini-clad figures on porn sites.
Men are prowling the beaches of Barcelona with hidden cameras, covertly filming women and girls in their swimwear to post the videos online.
Streams of the sick footage has flooded social media in recent years, with dedicated accounts and webcam feeds churning out recordings of oblivious bikini-clad women splayed out by the sea.
One channel featuring footage from the city’s popular Barceloneta Beach has more than four million subscribers.
On May 21, several panicked women called the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan police) emergency hotline from Sant Sebastià beach in the Barceloneta neighbourhood.
A man was spotted roaming between groups of women with his mobile phone camera pointed at his selected victims – those sunbathing topless, police said.
Officers from the motorcycle patrol unit were deployed to the site the alleged voyeur was spotted, but by the time they arrived he had fled.
The Guàrdia Urbana police and the Beach Unit of the Catalan capital have been aware of the disturbing scheme for almost a decade.
But no official statistics exist to show just how many women have been subject to the violation.
Although the images or videos are taken without consent, filming in public is not illegal – allowing voyeurs to act with impunity.
But publishing the photographs or video footage does constitute a violation of privacy.
The Sun has been unable to independently verify if any of the men depicted in this article were purposely filming women inappropriately without their permission.
Some women have taken matters into their own hands by catching suspected perpetrators in the act.
Dozens of videos posted by women on social media show men stalking between sun loungers, discreetly holding their phones to their chest as they appear to leer at sunbathing women.
The comments are filled with other women sharing similar experiences.
And the sickening trend is not confined to Barcelona’s beaches alone.
In May last year cops arrested a man accused of secretly filming his conversations with women in the street.
He allegedly used the footage to promote an online “seduction technique course”.
Officers allegedly found 239 secretly recorded videos on the suspect‘s social media profile in which women shared personal details, including their nationality, occupation or daily routine.
The suspect, believed to have used a hidden camera, approached women on the streets of Barcelona and filmed conversations with them without consent.
“He is suspected of involvement in offences against privacy and sexual assault,” Spain‘s National Police said.
The footage often showed the women’s faces clearly and was used as promotional material on the suspect’s website.
Users could pay €3,000 (£2,500) to enrol for an online “seduction techniques” course and access the secret recordings.
The course’s content included instructions on how to approach women and real-life examples based on the videos he had recorded, police said.
Police began their investigation in April, after a woman reported the man had touched her inappropriately and tried “to kiss her twice” in the course of a conversation.
She later discovered a video of the incident posted on a popular social media platform, where it had already garnered more than 700,000 views.
Police arrested the suspect in May. He has been released under judicial supervision while awaiting trial, a police spokesman said.
The types of videos which have racked up billions of views online have raised serious questions about women’s safety and the laws around filming in public.
Maeve Walsh, director of the Online Safety network told The Sun: “We have seen sites such as these proliferate across the UK that are profiting from users sharing non-consensual covert videos of women, breaching women’s safety and privacy in the public sphere.
“This is not acceptable.”
Whilst current gaps in the legislation make it difficult to prosecute this form of covert filming, Maeve said tech platforms should be “accountable for removing these videos when they appear on their sites”.
Earlier this year a Spanish court closed a case that involved dozens of women being secretly filmed and the videos being posted on porn websites.
Strategically placed hidden cameras recorded at least 100 women, including minors urinating in a side street due to lack of facilities at the A Maruxaina local festival in the northwestern town of Cervo in 2019.
In many cases, the footage showed close-ups of women’s faces and genitals, which were then uploaded on explicit websites, some requiring payment to view.
The women were as young as 16 and as old as 50.
In 2020, those affected took legal action, demanding the recordings to be investigated.
But a year later a judge shelved the case on the grounds that recording in a public place was not illegal.
The recording “did not constitute any attack or violation of privacy”, the ruling declared.
For the next five years the victims have doggedly fought for justice – to see the men who filmed them held to account.
Their own detective work has led them to find dozens of videos taken at other festivals across Spain without women’s knowledge, which have also been uploaded to porn websites.
But in February this year, a judge at a Viveiro court announced they were closing the case – blaming accountability of US-based porn sites.
Some of the videos filmed at the festival in Galicia have now been taken down, though many still remain online.
The victims have just two more chances to appeal.
Camera phones and the availability of cheap, discreet and high-quality camera equipment has led to widespread covert filming of women around the world.
This has coincided with a boom in online streaming platforms, including social media and porn websites, which allow users to upload their own content.
In 2017, seven women in Mallorca reported a group of foreign men for using a drone to allegedly record them sunbathing naked.
The group of friends were spending their Saturday morning on a yacht, owned by one of the group, when they spotted the drone.
Five of the women on the deck of the boat were naked and said the drone was initially filming in the direction of a nearby port.
But it moved “just above the vessel”, changing position constantly and with the red recording light clearly visible, they claimed.
The women reported spotting another yacht close by, with “a group of men on board looking at a screen”.
According to the women, the drone was only moved away after one of the men realised he was being filmed by the women.
After calling the police, the women alleged they were offered money by the men as an apparent bribe to not reporting what happened.
Earlier this year the BBC reported cases of men in UK city centres filming women on nights out and sharing the video online to make money.
In 2024, a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) investigation saw a 27-year-old man arrested on suspicion of voyeurism and harassment.
The suspect is thought to be the first in the country linked to the viral videos – which have racked up more than three billion views.
But in January this year, police said the criminal investigation had collapsed due to “limitations within the current legislation”.
Leading women’s charities have now demanded the UK government take action on the nightlife filming.
In a letter sent to PM Andy Burnham, campaigners say women and girls are forced to “limit their presence in public life” following a “rapid rise” in the clips.
Penned by Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse MP the letter was signed by Refuge, Women’s Aid, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, and the Online Safety Network amongst others.
Maeve said: “Regulators and tech platforms have a role to stop the posting and spread of this content, addressing how their business model drives this form of harm, and we will continue to make the case for them to do so.”
The groups warn that videos are linked to “predatory behaviours” including stalking and harassment.
It urges the PM to “strengthen” legislation, saying police are currently unable to deal with the issue effectively because of gaps in the law.
