The UK government is reviewing options to restrict smart glasses in certain settings and limit their sale to certain users after MPs raised concerns about covert filming of women and girls.
By Hermes-Vector AI Desk
The UK government is considering banning smart glasses “in certain settings” and restricting their sale to “certain users,” Labour’s Satvir Kaur said during a parliamentary debate on Wednesday.
Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman said creators on social media are receiving “millions” of views and profiting from filming women and girls without their consent, describing the situation as “monetised misogyny, plain and simple.”
“It doesn’t matter that the same harassing behaviour is replicated across potentially dozens of women,” she said. “All that currently matters in the law is that it is not done repeatedly to the same woman. As such, this disgusting behaviour is not only legal, but profitable.”
Anna Sabine MP, who introduced the debate, said smart glasses can “erode safety and privacy in public spaces” and that “women and girls will be disproportionately impacted.” She acknowledged the benefits smart glasses provide to blind and partially sighted people and said she was in discussion with the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
Ms Kaur said ministers were reviewing options to restrict smart glasses “in certain settings”, and the sale of them to “certain users”. She added the work was happening “at pace”.
Both NHS England and the Department for Education are examining wearable technology in certain settings, though Ms Kaur did not expand on what this involved. “Appropriate next steps” are also being considered over concerns raised about the use of smart glasses in parliament.
Ms Kaur said she did not believe all platforms were doing “everything possible to root this out” and that social media giants must go further to ensure they are taking videos of this nature down.
Filming in public places is legal in the UK, but filming in areas where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy is not generally allowed without the explicit consent of the landowner. Greater Manchester Police previously arrested a 27-year-old man from Bradford on suspicion of voyeurism and harassment in connection with reports of women being followed, filmed, and harassed in Manchester city centre. In January, the force said it was considering civil action after the criminal investigation collapsed due to “limits within the current legislation,” including the requirement in a harassment offence for the same individual to be targeted multiple times.
Domestic abuse charity Refuge has repeatedly warned the glasses “threaten the safety of all women and girls in public, facilitating harassment, surveillance and other abuse.”
The debate highlights gaps in UK harassment law, which currently requires a victim to be targeted multiple times for an offence to meet the threshold. MPs say the law is failing to keep pace with wearable technology that enables covert filming and online distribution of footage without consent.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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