An increasing number of teenagers are committing crimes by secretly filming others using hidden cameras, with the overall method becoming bolder by snoopers in more public areas, statistics showed Thursday.

The National Police Agency said 2,905 suspects were indicted last year for secretly filming others using concealed cameras or mobile phones.

The number of peeping toms caught has continued to surge from 1,051 in 2010, and the rise is attributable a crackdown on the crime, the agency said. Most of the cases, or 18.2 percent, occurred on the streets, a 34.2 percent surge from 2013. It was also a 15-fold increase from 2010.

The proportion of peeping toms who were teenagers reached 10.7 percent, a fourfold increase in three years. The number of teenage suspects has seen a rapid increase year-on-year, by 108 percent in 2012, 24.3 percent in 2013 and 39.1 percent last year. Most of them filmed body parts of others in classrooms or shared footage of their sexual activities.