Meta glasses at the school gate

[Minephotographercat]

I know several Dads at our primary school own, and are big advocates of the meta glasses that can record people without them realising.

WIBU to email the school (without naming names) with my concerns that our children might be being recorded at the school gate?

I see well that's not around the school then is it. It's IN it

I’m incredulous that anyone would be so culturally tone deaf and out of touch as to wear these in public, let alone at a school. They are literally nicknamed ‘pervert glasses’.

I've never heard of them until this thread

The principle also remains true that anyone overtly filming children at school gates is liable to get thumped. Doing so covertly is even dodger.

This seems like quite a leap. The inference that they are probably secretly recording children is not justified by the fact that they own Meta glasses. I know several people that have them it’s not occurred to me that they might be secretly recording with them.

You’ve gone from a technological possibility to an allegation about people’s behaviour, with absolutely no basis to do so.

So you've not seen them in real life, but your OP is all about creep dads filming at rhe school gate.

If you haven’t seen it in real life how are you aware of multiple men filming children at the school gates?

Sorry to clarify, I've seen the glasses in real life, just not the recording light flashing.

I agree meta glasses are weird and should be regulated. That said, I’m not sure why someone who intended to use them for nefarious purposes would vocally big them up in the way you describe. Ultimately, if someone is determined to covertly film you, they can do it pretty easily; that’s the world we live in, one where people reach for their camera phone before they call an ambulance.

So you haven’t seen anyone, male or otherwise, recording at the school gate?

If you haven’t seen them recording how are you sure they’re meta glasses?

Write to the school

its a safeguarding issue

Why does anyone need a reason to not wish to be filmed?

“Because I don’t want my children or me to be recorded without my consent”, should be reason enough.

How about demanding a good enough reason from the person doing the filming? The onus for justification should be on them, surely? If not, why not?

Why would anyone want meta glasses?

surely weirdos only?

A conversation where they stated that they were and went on to wax lyrical about how amazing they are and how people need to accept that technology moves on. By 2 parents that own then and another in strong agreement.

People disable the recording light. They're more subtle than phone recordings because you think someone is just wearing glasses, whereas you could be suspicious of someone holding their phone up. There are already privacy issues with the proliferation of phones, these pervert glasses make them a thousand times worse especially when facial recognition features get rolled out. I would be incredibly suspicious of anyone buying and wearing these glasses. It's a shame because they'd be great for visually impaired people but they're going to be used in the main by creeps and pose a huge threat to women and children.

Technology could be so transformative for the better if it wasn't owned by despicable tech bros and developed to cater to and exploit the darkest impulses of men.

Quite. I know a few people who bought them early on but would never wear them now. It would be social anathema and could provoke verbal abuse or worse from people, particularly teenagers who seem to be leading the backlash against all that is AI and big tech. However I can imagine a certain type of oblivious middle-aged dad wearing them thinking they were being cool.

I have just looked them up. The glasses design does identify them and it seems like there are behavioral ways to tell if they are being used - but might just be making a phone call etc. I still snigger to myself when I see people walking along the street holding phone conversations. On the surface it looks like people are talking to themselves. Actually you can tell. So maybe soon we will be able to tell who is using their Meta glasses. Until then when we are out and about be cautious around anyone wearing ugly glasses.

I agree.

People are asking the wrong questions here- its not "why does it bother you", its "why on earth do you need to video record children who arent related to you at your local primary school?"

Why would people need to record children that arent theirs?- think about that for a moment. Its really concerning.

This is even more of a ludicrous leap than the OP’s.

Some people just enjoy having the latest tech, and plenty of men in particular are enthusiastic about gadgets and new technology. Owning a pair of Meta glasses doesn’t make someone a pervert any more than owning a phone with a camera does. You can think they’re unnecessary or a bit ridiculous without assuming that everyone who buys them has sinister motives.

If you are hanging around your local primary school recording then yes, it does.

So reply on the whatsapp - I would.

Id write something along the lines of ‘Why would anyone walk around wearing these things? I thought everyone knew they were only used by people trying to covertly record others or cheat in exams?’

Some people are very naive about safeguarding.

They can literally be your everyday prescription glasses or sunglasses, so of course someone who owns them might wear them everywhere. If I’d spent several hundred pounds on a pair of glasses that I could use every day, I’d be wearing them too. It’s quite a leap to see someone wearing them at the school gate and assume they’re there to record children.

What's the plus points of them? Why would people buy them? I don't quite get it.

They’re smart glasses that can also function as ordinary prescription glasses or sunglasses. You can use them hands-free for calls, music/podcasts, taking photos and video, navigation and AI features.

I work in construction and see plenty of site managers, surveyors, QS and architects using them, so there are practical uses as well as the novelty factor. They’re not for me personally, but I can certainly see why people would want them.