Are you being watched in the bathroom?

Next time you use a public restroom, take a look around. Scan any vents, towel dispensers or other fixtures, including electric outlets and light switches.

Why? You just might be on camera.

In recent months, hidden cameras have been found in restrooms and other facilities in at least three Iowa communities, mirroring a nationwide problem.

Elsewhere, a church pastor in Indiana was convicted in May of hiding cameras in a women's restroom. Chicago police are investigating a hidden camera in the restroom of a funeral home. And last week in Cleveland, a TV station told employees that a hidden video camera was discovered in a women's restroom.

Prosecuting suspects for hidden cameras is a tricky matter under Iowa law. When cameras capture photographs or recordings of adults, prosecutors must prove the person intended to get nude images, said Kevin Cmelik of the Iowa attorney general's office.

In many other states, the laws are tougher. Thirteen states expressly prohibit the unauthorized installation or use of cameras, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which tracks laws that affect the news media.

"Sometimes it gets down to the angle the camera was placed at," Cmelik said. "I've never heard of a camera case being prosecuted with the invasion of privacy laws, but there aren't a lot of these cases to go by, either."

While the problem hasn't reached epidemic proportions, it is worth checking when using a public restroom, said Matt DeLisi, coordinator of the criminal justice program at Iowa State University.

"It's something to guard against," DeLisisaid. "Technology is small enough and cheap enough that it is pretty easy to do. It's not super common, but there are cases of it out there."

THREE CASES IN IOWA

In Iowa this year:

-- The Dubuque County attorney in June charged Donald Born, 48, of Solon with trespassing. He is accused of hiding two cameras inside a portable restroom at a baseball field in Cascade. The cameras were discovered in early June.

-- University of Iowa authorities in June began investigating after a video camera was found in a restroom at the University Capitol Centre's Information Technology Services.

-- Ian Isabel, 29, faces federal charges after authorities say he recorded children below the waist with cameras he hid in a girls restroom and a staff restroom while he was a custodian at Hayes Elementary School in Davenport. Isabel was arrested in April.

Those who secretly record people in restrooms do so for a variety of reasons, ranging from voyeurism to trying to sell images and videos online to make a profit.

"A major aspect of it is displaced eroticism," said Stephen Reich, a psychologist and attorney and director of the Forensic Psychology Group in New York City. "We're describing someone who gets an erotic charge out of the secret viewing of the intimate parts of a human body."

DeLisi, the ISU criminology professor, said he believes profiteering also is involved, regardless of sexual disorder or proclivity.

"Unfortunately, there's a market for this kind of material on the Internet," he said. "It's illegal, but it's also out there."

The miniaturization of technology has aided scofflaws.

A battery-powered camera capable of transmitting data via Wi-Fi or saving it to a hard drive costs as little as $50 online. And disguising the camera is easier than ever.

The custodian in Davenport used a box that staff assumed was a part of the toilet's automatic flushing system, authorities said.

Last month, police in Grapevine, Texas, charged a 64-year-old man with planting a camera in a restaurant restroom that appeared to be a standard electrical outlet. A 27-year-old man in Joliet, Ill., is accused of using an Axe Body Spray bottle to hide a camera in a business restroom.

PENALTIES VARY

In Iowa, a 2004 law makes it a crime to knowingly view photographs or videos of another adult for sexual gratification if the person in the recordings does not have knowledge of the recording, did not or is unable to consent to it, and the person is in a state of full or partial nudity.

That crime is considered a serious misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,875. Anyone convicted is required to register as a sex offender.

But most hidden camera cases involving adults are prosecuted under trespassing laws, Cmelik said. Those carry penalties of a maximum of 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $625.

However, cases involving children can be prosecuted as child sexual abuse if the recordings or photographs involve nudity, Cmelik said. If the images have been uploaded and shared on the Internet, federal authorities may also prosecute the crime because use of the Internet involves interstate crime.

Elsewhere around the country, secretly recording others carries stiffer penalties.

In Maine, privacy violation is a felony. In Michigan, unauthorized installation or use of a hidden camera is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a maximum $2,000 fine, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

To avoid being victimized, experts recommend being alert to surroundings.

And it brings new meaning to the old parental admonishment: "You should have gone before we left home."