UK government considers smart glasses ban over secret filming concerns

Minister hints at restriction on selling technology ‘to certain users’ amid worries over surreptitious filming of women

Restrictions on smart glasses are being considered by the government, a minister has said, amid concerns that the technology is being used to surreptitiously film women.

Speaking in the House of Commons, the safeguarding minister Satvir Kaur hinted at a ban on selling the technology “to certain users”.

Kaur said: “The benefits of smart glasses must be weighed against the harms they can cause. The government is already looking into options to restrict smart glasses in certain settings and restricting the sale to certain users.”

The minister said people who use smart glasses for filming already risk breaking the law in certain settings, such as in a court where cameras are already prohibited.

Kaur added: “Other settings, such as healthcare and education, have existing safeguarding or professional policies that are relevant to smart glasses and any kind of digital recording.

“Both NHS England and the Department for Education are currently looking into wearable technology in certain settings as well.”

Anna Sabine, the Liberal Democrats’ culture spokesperson, who held Wednesday’s debate, said that “women are reporting waking up after nights out to find videos of themselves have gone viral online, filmed without their knowledge or consent by men wearing smart glasses”.

The MP added: “To me, these devices not only have the potential to erode safety and privacy in public spaces, but raise really important questions about consent.”

She said in advertisements, “one of the key selling points was that the glasses could be used to film discreetly”.

Sabine said she did not want parliamentarians to “only regulate once it is too late”. Kaur said smart glasses, which can come with built-in cameras, microphones and displays, “can be hugely beneficial” to some people.

“For example, for those that are visually impaired, smart glasses have been a gamechanger, helping them navigate the world around them.”

A politician in the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, has previously defended his use of smart glasses in the debating chamber.

Jason O’Connell, a Reform UK MS for Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, read a speech from an in-built autocue feature in his glasses last month.

“One of the things I identified, a weakness of mine, was that my head was down looking at my notes a lot and I wanted to get away from that,” he told the BBC’s Politics Wales programme.