This Guardian editorial argues that UK regulators are lagging behind businesses in responding to the privacy risks posed by Meta's smart glasses, which critics have dubbed "pervert glasses" due to their potential for covert filming. While venues such as Wetherspoons, theatre group ATG, restaurants, schools and members' clubs have already banned the devices, ministers have said almost nothing about the rollout of wearable hidden cameras, despite recent government action on smartphone use among young people and public concern over sexualised AI imagery.

The piece cites BBC reports of women filmed without consent, with footage later uploaded to social media and, in one case, held for ransom. It notes that image-based sexual abuse and cyberflashing drove more than half of an 11% rise in reported sexual offences in England and Wales in the year to March 2025. Despite this, Meta—having invested $80bn in the product, priced from £269 in the UK and fronted by Kylie Jenner—shows no sign of scaling back its ambitions. The editorial acknowledges genuine benefits for blind and visually impaired users, but insists any regulation should protect such uses (as with guide dog exemptions) while still addressing the wider potential for harm.