The government is examining restrictions on the sale of smart glasses to some buyers and on their use in certain settings, the safeguarding minister has told MPs, amid concern that men are using the devices to film women without their knowledge.
Satvir Kaur, the Home Office minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, told a Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday morning that the government was "already looking into options to restrict smart glasses in certain settings and restricting the sale to certain users". The work, she said, was "happening at pace".
Her remarks appear to be the first time a minister has said on the record that the government is weighing limits on who can buy the glasses, which carry built-in cameras. Ministers had until now stressed that existing offences already cover some misuse. In September Bridget Phillipson, the women and equalities minister, told the Commons that covert filming could raise serious privacy concerns and that offences including voyeurism applied to some uses.
Kaur did not announce a policy, a timetable or a legal mechanism, and she did not say which users or settings the restrictions might cover. She did not use the word "ban".
She told MPs the technology had clear uses, including for people with visual impairments, whom she said it had helped to navigate the world around them. "The benefits of smart glasses must be weighed against the harms they can cause," she said.
She added that other sectors already had rules that applied. "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. NHS England and the Department for Education are currently looking into wearable technology in certain settings as well," she said.
People filming with the glasses could already break the law in some places, she said, including courts, where cameras are prohibited.
The debate was opened by Anna Sabine, the Liberal Democrat culture spokesperson, who told MPs: "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."
Sabine said she did not want Parliament to "only regulate once it is too late", and pointed to the Christmas sales period, telling MPs the country was "only 50 days from Christmas".
Her Liberal Democrat colleague Marie Goldman said social media creators were drawing "millions" of views from covert footage and profiting from it, and described UK privacy and online abuse law as a "wild west".
The domestic abuse charity Refuge has repeatedly warned that the glasses "threaten the safety of all women and girls in public, facilitating harassment, surveillance and other abuse".
Meta, which makes the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses, has said privacy is built into the devices and that a light shows when they are recording. The Liberal Democrats, in a letter to the Commons Speaker last month, said the light could be covered or disabled.
Pressure on the government has been building for months. J D Wetherspoon banned customers from filming with Meta glasses across its more than 800 pubs in August. A petition calling for an immediate ban on the sale and promotion of smart glasses has passed 10,000 signatures, the threshold at which the government must respond, and closes on 9 December.
The Information Commissioner's Office said in March it was contacting Meta about the glasses after Swedish press reports that contractors reviewing AI training data had seen intimate footage.
Parliament is reviewing its own rules. Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, the Senior Deputy Speaker in the Lords, confirmed in September that the estate's policy on camera-, microphone- and AI-enabled glasses was under review. Kaur told MPs on Wednesday that the government recognised the concerns raised about their use on the parliamentary estate.
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