An "upskirt" is a picture or video taken of a woman's underwear or private parts without her consent and usually without her knowledge. It is usually taken on a mobile phone in public, often while a woman is on an escalator or climbing stairs. There are hundreds of websites and thousands of videos showcasing this despicable invasion of privacy.

In the UK, this is not necessarily illegal. Sometimes people can be prosecuted under public decency or voyeurism laws, but the vast majority of these perverts get away with it. Often people are only prosecuted if they take footage of people inside their homes or have thousands of images, and they still avoid jail sentences even when they openly admit what they are doing is wrong. This just encourages them to carry on, to post these things online and to go on to commit more serious sexual offences.

I have seen people doing this in public and it has even happened to one of my underage friends. Seeing how worried and uncomfortable she felt made me feel physically sick. This is not okay.

The UK has no specific law against this practice and it is not treated seriously enough. Those advocating this abomination say it is legal and that it does not outrage public decency because women have no "reasonable expectation of privacy" when in public. That is completely untrue: no woman expects perverts to take pictures under her skirt every time they leave their house. Creating a specific law against upskirt photography would deter crimes of this nature, raise awareness of how prevalent this issue is and make it easier to prosecute these people and give them more appropriately severe sentences.

Australia have created laws specifically to combat upskirt photography and other countries like India have laws which explicitly ban this practice. Legislation for the UK is not an unreasonable suggestion, but it could still be a big step forward.