Meta’s smartglasses mean any child can be covertly filmed. In the age of AI, how do we tackle that risk?
The company argues that it’s for individuals to ensure they don’t ‘actively exploit’ this technology. That won’t keep children safe It took me a while to realise what the man sitting next to me on the train was doing. He was flicking through pictures of a...
Meta’s smartglasses are being promoted as a way to capture personal moments hands-free, but a Guardian Technology column warns that the same convenience could make it easier to film children without their knowledge.
The piece points to remarks from Meta’s vice-president of wearables, Alex Himel, who spoke to the BBC about using the company’s new smartglasses to record his daughter performing in a talent contest. He described the appeal as being able to stay “in the moment,” with his head up and hands free. The column argues that the same feature set could also be misused by people covertly recording other children in public.
A central concern is how difficult it can be for bystanders to tell when recording is taking place. Meta’s glasses include a small flashing light on the frame to signal that the camera is active, but the article says many people may not notice it, especially as the devices become more common. In crowded places, a person could be filming while appearing to simply wear glasses.
The commentary links that risk to the rise of AI. It notes that images of children, whether taken in public or scraped online, can be used as raw material for creating realistic child sexual abuse material. The article says this is not a victimless abuse of technology, citing warnings that AI-generated abusive material may fuel sexual interest in children, normalize violence, and increase the chance of real-world offending.
The column is framed around a personal experience on a train, where the writer says a man was viewed zooming in on and cropping pictures of a toddler sitting opposite. The episode was only obvious because he was looking at the images on a visible phone screen. The concern raised is that smartglasses could remove even that clue, allowing someone to record a child “head up and hands free,” as the article puts it.
The argument in the piece is that relying on individuals not to “actively exploit” the technology is not enough to keep children safe. Instead, it suggests the issue needs wider attention because the ease of recording is increasing just as AI makes misuse of images more dangerous.
This report is based on a monitored public feed and reflects a Guardian Technology commentary on wearable tech, privacy and child safety. Source: The Guardian Technology - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/21/meta-smartglasses-child-filmed-ai-risk-technology
