The Paris prosecutor's office has opened at least one criminal investigation into suspected sexual harassment involving Meta's camera-equipped smart glasses, according to Reuters. The move suggests French authorities may be prepared to treat covert street filming as a criminal matter rather than leaving enforcement solely to the country's privacy regulator.

The investigation stems from a social media trend in which men use the glasses to film women in public without their consent and post the footage online, frequently on TikTok. Reuters reported on Friday that the prosecutor's office has not disclosed how many complaints it has received or whether any perpetrators have been identified.

At the center of the scrutiny are Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, produced with eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica. The devices carry a small camera built into the frame and an LED light that signals when recording is underway. Rights group e-Enfance warned that some users cover or disable the light, making it harder for bystanders to know they are being filmed. Meta has since released two software updates that prevent the camera from recording when the indicator is blocked.

Limits of French law

Article 226-1 of the French Penal Code provides for up to one year in prison and a €45,000 fine for recording a person's image without consent, but the provision applies only to private spaces, not public areas — a gap that covers exactly the kind of street filming at the heart of the trend. That distinction is significant when assessing the prosecutor's decision to open a criminal investigation.

France's data protection authority, the CNIL, has been examining the issue from a regulatory standpoint and warned in June that cameras and microphones embedded in ordinary-looking glasses can capture people without their knowledge. Nacera Bekhat, the CNIL's head of economic affairs, told Reuters that the glasses pose "real challenges" when it comes to alerting people that they are being recorded and obtaining consent.

A recording light is not consent

Regulators and safety advocates argue that the burden of preventing abuse should not fall on those being recorded. Ines Legendre, a legal expert at e-Enfance, told Reuters that an indicator light does not amount to consent to being filmed or to having one's image shared with thousands of people. Ines Girard, who studies technology-enabled gender-based violence at the Center Hubertine Auclert, echoed the point, saying the burden of heightened vigilance should not rest on the people being filmed.

Meta dominates the smart glasses market, and much of the scrutiny now converging on the category centers on its own devices. Reuters put its global share at about 76%, while Counterpoint Research measured it at 82% in the second half of 2025, before a wave of rivals entered the market. EssilorLuxottica reported sales of more than 7 million AI glasses in 2025 and described the category's growth as exponential — a distribution scale that gives the debate a footprint well beyond France.

Action across Europe and beyond

France is not alone. The German group HateAid filed a criminal complaint last month against Meta, Ray-Ban, Oakley, and several retailers. Australia's finance minister, Katy Gallagher, on Thursday asked the public service commission for advice on whether the glasses should be banned in Commonwealth workplaces.

Britain's Information Commissioner's Office opened an investigation into smart glasses in March, and some venues have restricted their use entirely, though the UK Cinema Association said in August it was not aware of any members enforcing outright bans. The European Data Protection Board is also preparing to review the issue alongside national data protection authorities. Taken together, the responses span criminal complaints, data protection investigations, and workplace policy reviews.

Meta Connect, the event at which the company is expected to unveil its next generation of smart glasses, is scheduled for September 23. The launch will arrive with the Paris probe open, the EDPB review pending, and authorities in Britain and Australia still weighing how the devices should be handled.