Meta’s smart glasses are the latest weapon for school bullies

Instagram has spent the last few weeks trying to clean up harassment videos recorded using Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The platform deactivated two pickup-artist accounts, each with over a million followers, after they were found to be posting videos of women recorded without their consent. However, a recent Business Insider investigation found that the crackdown hasn’t been going well, with dozens of similar videos still circulating on the platform.

That failure to catch problematic videos isn’t limited to public harassment anymore. A report from Futurism reveals that teenage boys are using Meta’s smart glasses to record classmates and teachers at school, often without their knowledge, posting the clips to TikTok and Instagram. Much of that footage stayed online until the publication contacted both platforms directly.

The videos go beyond pranks

Futurism found students using the glasses to record interactions with teachers and classmates, with some clips turning into harassment aimed at girls. The videos include boys approaching girls, following them after they try to get away, and mocking them for their appearance.

Other clips show students recording teachers and classmates during confrontations, turning private or uncomfortable moments into social media content. The glasses make this particularly easy because they can record from the wearer’s perspective without making it obvious that a camera is running. That means people can end up in videos without realizing they’re being filmed, let alone agreeing to have the footage posted online.

Meta removed the videos after they were flagged

The bigger issue here is that many of the clips weren’t automatically caught by the platforms. Futurism found videos on both TikTok and Instagram that violated their respective rules, but they remained online until the publication flagged the content directly.

Meta removed the Instagram videos the publication identified, while TikTok also took down videos brought to its attention. That means the platforms’ moderation systems failed to catch at least some of the behavior Meta has been promising to address in its broader crackdown on harassment videos filmed with the glasses.

The problem is particularly concerning when the technology is being used to target minors. Meta may be trying to clean up the worst examples of “rizzcam” content, but these school videos suggest that the problem is already spreading to a much younger audience.