Photo: CFP

A 16-year-old male was taken into criminal detention by police on Saturday for allegedly selling videos of college girls going to the toilet on the Internet, police said.

The Shapingba District Public Security Bureau in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality said in a statement on Sunday afternoon that police were notified by the public of online trafficking of photos and videos of female students going to the toilet secretly taken in a college women's restroom in Chongqing. Police immediately launched an investigation and detained the 16-year-old suspect surnamed Gan in Chengdu, Southeast China's Sichuan Province, on Saturday.

Gan claimed that he had bought and downloaded pornographic photos and videos from overseas websites several times, then reassembled and resold them online.

In the statement, the police said that among the photos and videos Gan trafficked, there were five photos of fully clothed women secretly taken outside a college women's restroom at a university in Chongqing, while the other photos and videos were not associated with the university. After a comprehensive check of the toilets on campus, no clandestine filming equipment was found.

According to domestic news site bjnews.com, an employee of Sichuan International Studies University, where netizens claimed the incident took place, said the university has obtained the relevant information and called the police.

The incident has also triggered widespread concern on China's social media platforms, with netizens worried and angry about the booming growth of the peeping industry chain.

Jimu News, a news channel under the Chutian Metropolis Daily, reported that some netizens revealed that the videos were first posted on Twitter to make money. As of Sunday afternoon, several people were still selling the video online, generally using "boutique toilet shooting resources" as the keyword, with the price of the video ranging from 5 yuan ($0.76) to 20 yuan ($3). The reporter, pretending to be a buyer, discovered that after paying, the buyer could join the seller's internal group to watch the full videos.

The case is currently under further investigation. Local police said they will join the relevant departments to crack down on the peeping industry.