Convicted sex offenders should be banned from buying smart glasses to stop women being secretly filmed, the Liberal Democrats have urged.
The party has warned ministers that people are using the digital eyewear, which has inbuilt cameras, to covertly record women in public and upload the footage online.
They want the government to ban creeps from tampering with the glasses, which include Meta Ray-Bans, so that others don’t know they are filming.
Anna Sabine MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport, told : ‘Nobody should wake up to discover that a video of them has been filmed without their knowledge and shared with thousands or even millions of people online.
‘This is an issue of safety and privacy. The Government can’t credibly be committed to halving violence against women and girls while allowing people to become unknowing victims of Spex Offenders.’
Smart glasses are designed to allow the wearer to access information and apps similar to a smart phone, but reports have surfaced that the new technology is being used to harm and humiliate people.
Women have come forward saying they have been secretly filmed in public, with the footage then posted online, the BBC has reported.
Smart glasses such as Meta Ray-Bans have a LED light embedded in them that blinks when users capture photos, videos and audio.
However, some wearers have developed ways to disable the flashing light to make it impossible to know they’re being filmed.
One vendor bragged to The Guardian that it was easy to modify glasses, although Meta has now announced new safeguards to stop tampering.
The Liberal Democrats have said that ministers also need to do more to protect Brits from the misuse of smart glasses.
Ms Sabine told the party wants ‘a complete ban’ on the purchase of smart glasses ‘by convicted sex offenders’.
She added: ‘Everyone deserves to feel safe in public.’
The party have also written to the government to demand more action to stop glasses tampering.
This includes a ban on modifications which disable or remove the recording indicator LED.
In a letter shared with , Ms Sabine said she thought these measures would ‘limit the use of smart glasses for covert filming’ and ‘reinforce the Government’s aim of halving violence against women and girls’.
Professor Clare McGynn, a leading expert on violence against women and girls, backed ‘robust anti-tampering protections’ for smart glasses that ‘cannot be disabled or circumvented’.
She said: ‘This requires act by the tech platforms, as well as new regulations.’
The Durham University professor added: ‘This is not simply about privacy: it is about freedom and protecting women from what my colleagues and I call “freedom-based harms”.
‘If new technologies make women feel watched, recorded or targeted in public, they can restrict where we go, what we do and how freely we move through the world.
‘These are freedom-based harms, and we need to anticipate and prevent them now, rather than waiting until they become entrenched.’
The charity Rape Crisis has told they want smart glasses ‘removed off the market wholesale’.
They added: ‘he seemingly total lack of safeguards demonstrates contempt for the safety of women and girls.
‘Meta will be well aware that the proliferation of sexualised and sexually violent material is rife, and so there is no excuse to create products that can be used to facilitate it and ignore the principle of safety-by-design.’
The feminist nonprofit said that proposals to ban sex offenders from buying smart glasses were ‘well-intentioned’ but warned it could be difficult to enforce in practice.
The End Violence Against Women Coalition told they were also ‘concerned that our online safety law doesn’t go far enough to protect women from this emerging threat’ of smart glasses.
There Interim Director Janaya Walker added: ‘Unfortunately, these products can pose a risk to women and girls whether in the hands of a stranger or a friend, colleague or partner.
The Liberal Democrats’ letter comes days after Meta announced an update to their AI glasses to stop people getting around their LED light safeguard.
The tech giant – which reportedly sold 7 million pairs of their glasses last year – has said the camera will not start recording if the capture LED is covered.
Meta added their glasses will also disable the camera entirely if they detect physical tampering with it.
The company confirmed they had seen some people tricking the capture LED by starting to film and then covering the LED.
Now Meta insists that if someone covers the light while filming, the camera will stop.
‘These investments are already having a deterrent effect — companies that were offering LED tampering services have shut down because the camera now automatically deactivates when tampering is detected,’ Meta added.
One company, Ghost Meta, told the Guardian they had paused their business modifying glasses as a result of Meta updates.
A Meta spokesperson continued: ‘Our glasses are proving to be very popular with people to listen to music, make calls, and even get live translation on the go.
‘We’ve built privacy into the camera for the glasses from the ground up – a capture LED will blink bright white when you take a photo or video you can save or share.
‘This light has no off switch so both people wearing the glasses and those around them feel comfortable. If people tamper with the LED light, including placing blockers over it, the camera will not work.’
A government spokesperson said: ‘Recording someone in public to cause alarm or distress may constitute offences such as harassment or stalking. We are already further strengthening protections for victims of intimate image abuse through new offences in the Crime and Policing Act.
‘We will continue to engage with the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure regulation remains effective as technology evolves and that people’s information rights are protected.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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