On the morning of January 13, 2026, viewers tuning in to BBC One’s flagship morning show, BBC Breakfast, were confronted with a story that struck a nerve across the United Kingdom and beyond. Presenters Sally Nugent and Jon Kay, both seasoned broadcasters, paused their usual mix of headlines and light-hearted banter to address a growing and deeply troubling trend: women being secretly filmed by individuals wearing smart glasses, with the resulting footage posted online without their knowledge or consent.
"The concerning thing, I think, for lots of women is that you wouldn't know, necessarily, if the light's off, that those are glasses that can record," Nugent told viewers, her tone reflecting the seriousness of the issue. "You just wouldn't even think about it, would you?" she added, echoing the confusion and unease so many feel in public spaces today. Kay, her co-host, chimed in: "And so many people wear glasses now as a fashion accessory, or lots of different types, big glasses. Yeah, I had no idea that that was a thing." The exchange, reported by the Express, set the stage for a segment that would lay bare the personal and societal consequences of this new technological threat.
As the programme delved deeper, it became clear that the problem wasn’t just theoretical. Women have told the BBC how they have been left feeling vulnerable and unsafe after being filmed by smart glasses without their knowledge or consent and then seeing videos of themselves appearing online. The emotional toll was evident in the voices of those who shared their stories. Nugent summarized the collective anxiety succinctly: "Really distressing."
To bring the issue into sharper focus, the show featured a report including interviews with women who had experienced this violation firsthand. One such voice was Oonagh, a Brighton resident. She recounted how, while walking home from the beach, she was approached by a man whose glasses looked just like ordinary sunglasses. "He was wearing glasses, but they just looked like sunglasses," Oonagh recalled. "And he just asked for my name, and he just asked where I was from." There was nothing in the encounter to suggest anything sinister—until, two weeks later, she received a TikTok video from a friend. The clip showed her talking to the man, who had covertly filmed their conversation and posted it online.
Oonagh’s reaction was one of shock and dismay. "I had no idea that it was happening to me," she told BBC Breakfast. "I didn't consent to that being posted. I didn't consent to being secretly filmed. I felt really vulnerable in that moment. It was so out of my control, which is the scary part for me. It definitely made me feel afraid to kind of go out in public." The video, disturbingly, racked up nearly a million views and attracted hundreds of comments—many of them, according to the BBC report, "too sexually explicit to broadcast."
Oonagh’s experience was not unique. The segment also included the story of Kate, who was unknowingly filmed at her local gym. The man who recorded her later posted the video on TikTok, where it garnered about 50,000 views within just six hours. Kate described the impact bluntly: "All of this is essentially being done for cheap clicks online. Then you get loads of nasty comments, which then affects your confidence, your self-esteem." The deluge of attention and online abuse left her feeling "angry," and she eventually confronted the man responsible. After their exchange, he took down the footage, and his account was deleted. But the damage to Kate’s sense of safety and confidence had already been done.
Both Oonagh and Kate’s stories highlight a new kind of vulnerability that technology has introduced into everyday life. As Jon Kay pointed out, the ubiquity of glasses as fashion accessories makes it nearly impossible to distinguish between ordinary eyewear and devices capable of surreptitious recording. This ambiguity gives would-be voyeurs a disturbing advantage, allowing them to operate in plain sight while their targets remain oblivious.
The psychological impact on victims is profound. As the BBC segment revealed, many women now feel less safe in public spaces, worried that any interaction—no matter how mundane—could be recorded and broadcast to an audience of strangers. The sense of violation is compounded by the knowledge that these videos can attract a tidal wave of inappropriate and abusive comments, further eroding victims’ confidence and self-worth.
Experts interviewed by the BBC were unequivocal in their assessment: more needs to be done to regulate content and prevent products like smart glasses from being used to cause people harm. The current legal and regulatory landscape, they argued, has not kept pace with rapid advances in consumer technology. With smart glasses becoming increasingly affordable and difficult to detect, the potential for abuse is only likely to grow unless new safeguards are put in place.
Calls for regulation are not new, but the urgency has intensified as stories like Oonagh’s and Kate’s become more common. Advocates argue that manufacturers should be required to include clear indicators when recording is taking place, and that platforms hosting user-generated content must act swiftly to remove non-consensual videos and penalize repeat offenders. There is also a growing push for law enforcement agencies to treat such incidents as serious invasions of privacy, with real-world consequences for perpetrators.
Meanwhile, the role of social media platforms in amplifying harm cannot be ignored. The pursuit of "cheap clicks online," as Kate described it, creates perverse incentives for individuals to film and share intimate moments without consent. TikTok, in particular, has come under scrutiny for how quickly such content can go viral and for the often slow or inconsistent response to reports of abuse. The BBC report noted that in both Oonagh’s and Kate’s cases, videos were able to amass tens of thousands to nearly a million views before any action was taken.
For BBC Breakfast, the decision to spotlight this issue reflects a broader commitment to public service journalism. By giving a platform to victims and experts, the programme hopes to raise awareness and spark a conversation about the responsibilities of individuals, technology companies, and regulators in protecting the public from this new form of exploitation. As Sally Nugent remarked on air, "Experts are saying more needs to be done to regulate content and prevent products from being used to cause people harm."
With technology advancing at breakneck speed and social norms struggling to keep up, the challenge of safeguarding privacy in public spaces has never been more acute. The stories shared on BBC Breakfast serve as a stark reminder that, sometimes, the most ordinary interactions can have extraordinary—and deeply unsettling—consequences. As the debate over smart glasses and covert recording continues, the hope is that increased awareness and smarter regulation will help restore a sense of safety and dignity to all who venture out into the world.
