Anti-child porn group fights to remove 'countless' online images from Canada's most prolific voyeur
Even as Yin Yeung Derek Chan went to prison earlier this year, the actions of Canada's most prolific voyeur continued to "irrevocably scar" the lives of victims, a judge said. Chan had uploaded many of the "countless" videos and images secretly recorded of at least 652 women and children online.
Images produced by Yin Yeung Derek Chan will continue to 'irrevocably scar' victims, judge says
Emily Fagan · CBC News
·
Listen to this article
Estimated 5 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
When Yin Yeung Derek Chan went to prison earlier this year, a judge said the photographs and videos Chan produced as Canada's most prolific voyeur would continue to "irrevocably scar" the lives of victims.
The judge said Chan recorded "countless" videos and images of at least 652 women and girls in Greater Victoria without their consent and uploaded many online — where some have continued to spread even after the voyeur's sentencing.
After an investigation by CBC News, a team of researchers at one Canadian charity has spent months working to take down as many of these images as they can, including several posted to social media.
"I deal with this stuff every day, but [this case] was really unique in terms of the volume [of images]," said Lloyd Richardson, director of technology for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCCP).
"It was just absolutely sickening."
Court records show Saanich police apprehended Chan in 2024 after some of the images the voyeur uploaded online were flagged by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
In a search warrant application, Saanich police wrote that officers confronted Chan with allegations that the voyeur had recorded hundreds of victims, and uploaded more than 100 of these files online.
"Something like that, I've lost count," Chan said, according to the records.
WATCH | Victims speak out about Saanich voyeur:
Victims in Canada's largest voyeurism case felt 'hunted'
September 9|
Duration
2:41
One Reddit post created by Chan — tagged "NSFW", meaning not safe for work — contained 19 images which appeared to be taken of girls and young women, without their knowledge, while they were shopping.
Commenters asked where to find videos Chan filmed, to which the voyeur responds they're "only open to payers."
"I am ready to follow and pay if necessary," writes one commenter. "Thank you for your work."
WATCH | More than 650 victims in case:
Canada's largest voyeurism case has 652 victims
May 25|
Duration
1:31
Reddit did not respond to multiple messages from CBC News about the post — but removed it and banned Chan's account within hours of receiving concerns from the CCCP.
Richardson says Reddit's own moderation system failed to catch what he believes is a violation of its terms of service.
The site's process for reporting, he said, also made efforts by outside groups to report child sexual abuse material or non-consensual intimate images more challenging.
Other companies have sent responses to the CCCP's takedown requests, declining to comply, that Richardson said he believes are generated by artificial intelligence — which he said can be time-consuming to escalate.
"There's a little bit of a David and Goliath thing going on there, with a multi-billion tech company versus a small charity in Canada," he said.
"The art of removal is a complicated thing, and dealing with the big tech companies is just sort of one avenue of it."
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection is located in Winnipeg. (Canadian Centre for Child Protection)
One of the tools the CCCP uses to remove and prevent the reuploading of child sexual abuse material online is Project Arachnid, an automated image detection program.
While the CCCP has been successful in tracking down some images of Chan's victims, Richardson said it has been challenging, given the large number of victims and limited public information to use in their search.
Often, the CCCP begins their work after the police or a victim reaches out with specific information about where images are online — which Richardson said is easier for the charity to fully shut down.
But in this case, the CCCP was alerted through the CBC investigation, which has left them to rely on information available through court records.
He hopes victims will also reach out, if they are concerned their images may be online.
'Devastated' lives, judge says
When delivering Chan's sentence earlier this year, B.C. Provincial Court Judge Lisa Mrozinski said the online recordings would continue to cause harm for years to come.
While several websites that Chan posted to — including one with over a million views — have been removed, some of the recordings have been shared by other online users, the court heard.
"Know that you have devastated and possibly irrevocably scarred the lives of countless women," Mrozinski said to the voyeur.
"These are women who must now live with the knowledge that these images live on the internet. There are the many others who will find out soon, and the many, many others who may never know, yet will be victimized, every time such images are viewed online."
As Richardson's team continues to look for more recordings created by Chan, they're also pushing for policy changes to protect potential future victims.
He's hopeful for the federal government's proposed Safe Social Media Act, which would create a regulatory body to hold companies accountable, and the barriers it may remove for taking down child sexual abuse material.
"They're basically going to be an instrument of bringing the hammer down on some of these companies, and that's great," he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Fagan is a CBC News journalist based in Victoria, B.C. She was previously a staff reporter for the Toronto Star. Her work has also appeared in publications including the Globe and Mail, Vice and the Washington Post. You can reach her at emily.fagan@cbc.ca.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.