UCSD Linked to Upskirt Photo Forum, Police Still Searching for Perpetrator(s)

Jonathan Hernandez / The Triton

This article concerns sexual harassment.

An unknown suspect, or possibly a group of suspects, has reportedly been taking upskirt photos of women around the UC San Diego campus and posting them on an online forum.

According to a Motherboard article written by Joseph Cox on VICE, a site called “The Candid Forum” hosts roughly 4,300 individual threads containing upskirt photos and videos taken without consent. The forum has been around since 2011 and has upwards of 220,000 active members. It is also reportedly “highly organized” and has a strict set of rules. The VICE article also mentions UCSD and its relevance to the forum in question.

“[A] source said they flagged one set [of images] to the University of California, San Diego,” Cox stated. “After that, UCSD warned students in an email about someone taking upskirt photos on the campus, according to a local media report.”

On March 2, the UCSD Police Department sent out an email to staff and students warning them of the incidents and asking for help in identifying the individual(s) involved. Although Motherboard reported that the account used by the UCSD individual has seemingly been deleted, Chief of Police David Rose told The Triton on May 14 that the case is still ongoing.

“The case is still open. We encourage anyone who may have information to please contact UC San Diego Police at (858) 534-4357,” Chief Rose said. “We also encourage anyone who thinks that they may have been surreptitiously recorded—even in a public place where it is not legally prohibited to do so—to contact police. Your information could help to provide new leads.”

Jenny Wu, a first year Management Science major from Marshall College, believes, like many, that the forum is highly inappropriate.

“That is wrong and gross,” Wu said. “It is very perverse and a huge invasion of privacy. Although nothing can be done about whoever they are…on campus, if you see people doing that, call them out. Inaction is complicity.”

Matthew Rom-Toribio is an Assistant News Editor at The Triton. You can follow him @MT2o.