Smart glasses could face UK restrictions over secret filming of women and girls

Smart glasses are allowing men to “monetise misogyny” by filming women and girls without their consent and posting the footage online for profit, MPs have warned.

Lawmakers warned offenders are “getting away” with exploiting women for views because of gaps in harassment law, which requires a victim to be targeted multiple times in order to meet the threshold.

Speaking at a debate in parliament on Wednesday, Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman said creators on social media are receiving “millions” of views and profiting from the filming, saying the UK law is a “wild west” when it comes to privacy and online abuse.

“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. It is monetised misogyny, plain and simple.”

She added that legislation is falling “woefully behind technology” and failing to keep women and girls safe.

In response, Labour’s Satvir 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”.

Ms Kaur said both NHS England and the Department for Education were both examining wearable technology in certain settings, but did not expand on what this involved.

She added “appropriate next steps” are also being considered over concerns raised over the use of smart glasses in parliament.

The debate was introduced by Anna Sabine MP, who said smart glasses can “erode safety and privacy in public spaces” and that “women and girls will be disproportionately impacted”.

She acknowledged the huge benefits smart glasses can provide to blind and partially sighted people, and said she was in discussion with the Royal National Institute for the Blind, who she said “have the same concerns as everyone else”.

“These glasses pose a threat to everyone’s safety in public spaces, and their privacy,” she added.

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.

Smart glasses have come under fire after women and girls reported being filmed without their consent or knowledge and posted to social media, where they are subjected to ridicule and the footage can spread globally.

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 (GMP) previously arrested a 27-year-old man from Bradford on suspicion of voyeurism and harassment, in connection with several reports of women being followed, filmed, and harassed in Manchester city centre.

But in January, the force said it was considering taking civil action after the criminal investigation collapsed due to “limits within the current legislation”. The Independent understands this included 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”.