Britain’s cinema trade body says venues are weighing policies that would restrict or fully ban camera-equipped smart glasses, as the devices become harder to spot than phones.

The UK Cinema Association, which represents operators across the country, says no widespread bans exist among members yet, but that could change as the glasses spread. Piracy is the core worry: someone raising a smartphone mid-film is easy to catch, while a pair of glasses sitting on a face is not.

Meta has tried to ease the concern with an LED that flashes while the camera records. Complaints about being filmed without consent still surface, and resistance is visible elsewhere in the UK. ATG Theatres bars filming during shows and warns that customers in smart glasses could be asked to take them off, and pub operator Wetherspoons has also pushed back on camera frames.

There is a counterweight to the crackdown. Meta argues its glasses help blind and low-vision users with live translation and hands-free assistance, and the UKCA acknowledges that accessibility value. That leaves venues juggling piracy and audience privacy against shutting out people who genuinely rely on the technology.

The UKCA stresses the matter remains unresolved and that any rules must scale sensibly as the devices spread.

Source: Digital Trends