"To Use or Not to Use" – Let's Talk About AI Smart Glasses

OPINION PIECE

Not long ago, seeing someone point a phone at you or your child on a beach would have raised an immediate concern. Today, that same person could be wearing what looks like an ordinary pair of glasses and, with a single tap, record you or your child without anyone noticing.

AI smart glasses are marketed with promises to "capture every memory", but behind the glossy advertising lies a much darker reality. Reports of children and women being secretly recorded in public have already emerged. Online communities have filled with discussions of how these devices can be used to exploit women and children, including tips on how to hide or disable the tiny recording light intended to alert those nearby.

AI smart glasses have made covert recording easier than ever. Images and videos produced in this way may constitute image-based sexual abuse and exploitation – a form of gender-based violence in which images are used to exploit, humiliate, or sexually violate a person.

Individuals filmed via AI smart glasses have no control over where their images and videos go, how they may be altered, who accesses the recordings, and how they may be used in the future, including for purposes they never imagined or consented to.

Recorded images and videos may be further manipulated with the help of Artificial Intelligence into child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or abusive imagery depicting adults that offenders trade online or use to facilitate further violence.

The risks posed by AI smart glasses extend far beyond the moment of recording. When using these glasses and enabling the AI function, users automatically accept their data being used to train AI and data annotation. This is something users cannot opt out from.

Image-based violence may impose profound and devastating long-term impacts

When sexual violence is recorded, shared, or used to threaten or control a person, it becomes a complex and ongoing form of abuse subjecting victims and survivors to repeated victimisation.  91% of survivors report experiencing severe negative physical, psychological, and social consequences.

At Protect Children, we witness the impacts of image-based child sexual abuse and exploitation every day through victim- and offender-focused research and analysing CSAM images through Project Arachnid. We know the scale of the demand for child sexual abuse material and how seemingly "innocent" images of children are routinely sexualised, manipulated, and distributed by offenders.

“You think that if they knew about the extent of the data collection, no one would dare to use the glasses”. - AI smart glasses data annotators.

While AI smart glasses do have the potential to improve lives through its positive impact on accessibility, technology designed to help people must not facilitate violence.

Recording in public places may be lawful, however, legality should not be confused with acceptability. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights recognises every person's right to privacy and the protection of personal data, including identifiable images and videos.

Innovation must not come at the expense of fundamental rights. Technology companies must adopt a safety-by-design approach when developing new products, instead of considering children's and women's wellbeing and privacy as an afterthought.

AI smart glasses are only one example of a much broader challenge. As technology evolves at an unprecedented pace and without appropriate safeguards in place, so do the ways in which children and women are abused and exploited.

When you ask yourself “To use or not to use” consider all those whose safety and wellbeing may be affected by your choice.  A survivor of image-based child sexual violence has shared: “I am a shell of who I once was. I have dealt with all of this by myself for years, and although it isn’t as bad as it could have been, it has ruined what my life could have been at this moment.”

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Research allows us better understand and prevent new and emerging forms of image-based sexual violence against children and women. Help us improve online safety by sharing our Project Lens surveys with your network.

About the project

Project Lens is an initiative which aims to understand and prevent emerging forms of image-based sexual violence against children.

The project is led by Protect Children, with the University of Eastern Finland as partner.

The project has Child's Rights Defenders League (Kyrgyzstan), Istiqbolli Avlod (Uzbekistan), Tashabbusi Huquqi (Tajikistan), Union of Crisis Centers (Kazakhstan) and Women Lawyers (Tajikistan) as local partners.

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided for this project by Safe Online.

Safe Online is the only global investment vehicle dedicated to keeping children safe in the digital world. Through investing in innovation and bringing key actors together, Safe Online helps shape a digital world that is safe and empowering for all children and young people, everywhere.

Learn more at https://safeonline.global/