(Adnkronos) – Oslo bans the use of smart glasses in schools. The ban in the Norwegian capital applies for the entire school day and at all levels of education. “We politicians must have the courage to be honest about what this is really about: one of the richest companies in the world has launched a product whose entire business logic consists of making it impossible to know when you are being filmed,” stressed Julie Remen Midtgarden, Oslo’s Deputy Mayor for Education. “In Oslo, we refuse to allow our children to become extras in Meta’s data collection,” she added.
The conservative politician also strongly criticized the left-wing Norwegian government, which stated that it had set up an expert group to evaluate possible regulation of these devices and the use of facial recognition in public spaces. “The glasses are being sold today in Norway, they are being used today in Norwegian schoolyards, and the problem already exists. Studying the issue does not mean acting,” Midtgarden said.
Smart glasses allow wearers to take photographs and record videos, listen to music, make phone calls, translate signs written in a foreign language, project texts or maps into their field of vision, or interact with an integrated artificial intelligence assistant. According to reports, Meta has developed a facial recognition feature ready to be integrated into its smart glasses. The ban in Oslo schools came into effect on August 27, but the announcement was postponed until Thursday due to the political truce agreed by Norwegian parties following the death of King Harald V, which occurred on August 28.
