‘They were comparing me to Bonnie Blue’: the disturbing rise of nightlife content

## Summary
Composite: Guardian Design; Posed by models; RyanJLane/Getty Images ‘They were comparing me to Bonnie Blue’: the disturbing rise of nightlife content Footage of women walking between bars and clubs in UK city centres, often filmed covertly, is proliferating online – attracting thousands of views and profits for those who post them. We also prohibit content that contains unwanted sexualisation of an identifiable individual.” It said anyone can request removal of content that features them and that it removed the City Life account after being contacted by the Guardian: “After review, we terminated the channel and removed the flagged video for violating our terms of service, which prohibits terminated users from using or creating any other YouTube channels.” Facebook said the removal of the video reported by Naylor Hayes’ acquaintance was “likely as a result of action taken by our systems”. She estimates that “YouTube’s gross would be of a similar order of magnitude”, adding that: “The woman filmed without her consent sees none of that.” Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University and a specialist in violence against women and girls, sounds frustrated. “It’s not unlawful to video out in public, walking down a busy street,” she says. “And in many ways we don’t want that to be unlawful, because many of us might be doing that quite legitimately and people happen to be in the background.” A reasonable expectation of privacy might apply in an intimate space such as a public toilet; voyeurism would apply only to an act deemed private, observed or recorded without consent, for sexual gratification or to cause distress. The videos do not generally “cross the threshold” for harassment, either. “If you filmed one person and uploaded one video, that wouldn’t be harassment, because it’s not a course of conduct.” In November 2024, Greater Manchester police arrested a Bradford man on suspicion of voyeurism and harassment in connection with several reports of women being followed, filmed and harassed in Manchester city centre.

## Article Content
‘It just feels so creepy’ … the videos fall into a legal grey area.
Composite: Guardian Design; Posed by models; RyanJLane/Getty Images
View image in fullscreen
‘It just feels so creepy’ … the videos fall into a legal grey area.
Composite: Guardian Design; Posed by models; RyanJLane/Getty Images
‘They were comparing me to Bonnie Blue’: the disturbing rise of nightlife content
Footage of women walking between bars and clubs in UK city centres, often filmed covertly, is proliferating online – attracting thousands of views and profits for those who post them. Can anything be done to stop the creepshots?
‘M
y friend just sent me this video, told me she’d found me in it,” read the text. “As I was looking for myself, I noticed you’re in it too. I didn’t know I was being filmed, guess you don’t either, just wanted to let you know …”
When Nancy Naylor Hayes received the message in November 2023, she felt a twinge of fear. It was from an acquaintance she hadn’t heard from in years. “I was panicking,” she says. The text pointed her to a Facebook link, which led to a montage of clips of women filmed on the streets of
Manchester
during nights out.
“You don’t know what you might have been caught doing,” she says. “What if they’ve got a horrible video of me?” She saw herself a few minutes in, with a friend she had been with that night as they visited the city’s bars. Clearly oblivious to the camera filming her, she stands on a pavement outside a doorway on her phone – calling a taxi, she recalls – her hand on the hip of her khaki miniskirt. Then the film-maker zooms in on her face and lingers there before recording her reaching across to wipe something from her friend’s cheek.
The 25-year-old from Wigan, who works as a progression coach for young people facing homelessness, still finds herself struggling to describe how the video made her feel. After all, she was “just literally stood having a conversation”. Yet she felt embarrassed. That intrusive lens “completely violates all privacy”, she says.
“Surely that’s not allowed?” she texted back.
In fact, videos of this nature, termed “nightlife content” or “walking tour content” and filmed covertly in public areas, tend to fall into a legal grey area with nothing prohibiting them. It is not illegal to film in a public area unless a reasonable expectation of privacy is being breached, a private or intimate act is being captured or the filmer’s behaviour counts as harassment. But a
recent BBC investigation
found more than 65 online channels with nightlife content videos, which had collectively been watched more than 3bn times over the past three years.
The creators of these channels, most of whom are anonymous, sometimes travel internationally specifically to film nightlife scenes. In the UK, Manchester and
London
are heavily targeted. The focus is almost solely young women, usually walking between bars and clubs. There is no structure or narrative, yet the films each generate hundreds of thousands – even millions – of views, earning profit for creators and social media platforms.
Women stride unknowingly towards the camera, which is often held at a low angle and apparently obscured. They are sometimes holding hands, sometimes staggering in heels. The camera operator will often home in on the tugging down of a miniskirt, the rearranging of a strapless top. Sometimes women are perching on a kerb, the camera hovering low as they manoeuvre their legs. Sometimes they munch chips or even fall over. Often the camera lingers on a woman’s cleavage as she walks closer, or focuses in from behind on her hot pants. These are creepshots in motion, but they rarely reveal anything not seen publicly. Awkward moments, too, are slyly captured: women arguing, a woman bending forwards, being sick.
Naylor Hayes soon realised there were two versions of the footage in which she featured. There was the montage on Facebook and another on YouTube, showing just her face. “It just made me feel so uncomfortable, because somebody’s seen that, clipped it down, zoomed in,” she says. “What if they have saved it? Who have they shared it with?” Then there were the comments. Hundreds of them. “Sexual things, things about my body,” she says, haltingly. “They were comparing me to … have you heard of
Bonnie Blue
?” she asks, quietly. Bonnie Blue is the moniker of the adult content maker Tia Billinger. There were humiliating remarks. “Saying I was fat, that I needed to not eat.”
Naylor Hayes’ acquaintance told her she had reported the video to Facebook, yet it had remained online. Naylor Hayes tried asking the creator of the YouTube clip to take it down, but received no reply. She also commented on the video, to a mixed response: some agreed the video was “strange”; others insisted “they’re not doing anything illegal”. She did not approach YouTube directly, but did call the non-emergency police line, 101. “It was a really short, blunt conversation,” she says. “They just said they’re not breaking any laws … it’s a p

---

## Expert Analysis

### Merits
N/A

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- The text pointed her to a Facebook link, which led to a montage of clips of women filmed on the streets of Manchester during nights out. “You don’t know what you might have been caught doing,” she says. “What if they’ve got a horrible video of me?” She saw herself a few minutes in, with a friend she had been with that night as they visited the city’s bars.
- The camera operator will often home in on the tugging down of a miniskirt, the rearranging of a strapless top.
- They range from sexual to mocking and are often vitriolic. “The weekly future single mothers of Manchester meeting, lol,” reads one. “Is this a red light district?” asks another. “So many fat women.” “A target-rich environment.” “They look so easy!” City Life’s profile reads: “I make high-quality videos about nightlife and popular places to visit in London and beyond.” View image in fullscreen The camera is often held at a low angle and apparently obscured.
- We also prohibit content that contains unwanted sexualisation of an identifiable individual.” It said anyone can request removal of content that features them and that it removed the City Life account after being contacted by the Guardian: “After review, we terminated the channel and removed the flagged video for violating our terms of service, which prohibits terminated users from using or creating any other YouTube channels.” Facebook said the removal of the video reported by Naylor Hayes’ acquaintance was “likely as a result of action taken by our systems”.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers videos, women, content topics. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 2470.