Smart Glasses in Schools: What the WA Ban Means for Privacy
Smart glasses in schools have quickly become a privacy and online safety issue that schools can no longer ignore.
From the first day of Term 4 2026, smart glasses will be banned across Western Australian public schools. The WA Department of Education has directed principals to ensure that students and staff cannot wear, use, charge or store smart glasses on school premises or at school-organised events and activities. The restriction also applies to parents, carers, visitors and contractors.
For schools, this is an important step in dealing with a technology that can make recording other people much less obvious.
But it also raises a bigger question: how do we create technology policies that can keep up when the technology itself keeps changing?
Why smart glasses in schools create privacy concerns
If you're not familiar with smart glasses, they can look much like ordinary glasses while incorporating technology such as cameras, microphones and AI features.
That creates a different privacy problem from someone holding up a phone to record.
When someone takes out their phone and points the camera at you, it is generally obvious what they are doing. With smart glasses, the person wearing them may simply appear to be looking around.
The WA Government's announcement specifically identifies the ability of smart glasses to secretly record images and voices as a concern. The Department of Education says the ban is intended to protect the privacy and safety of students and staff.
In a school environment, that matters.
Students and teachers should be able to participate in lessons, conversations and school activities without having to constantly wonder whether they are being recorded.
There are also practical concerns around assessment and academic integrity. A device that can potentially capture information without being obvious creates another issue for schools to consider during exams and other assessments.
What does the WA smart glasses ban actually mean?
The new CEO Instruction applies to WA government schools and school-organised activities.
From 12 October 2026, students and staff are not permitted to wear, use, charge or store smart glasses on school premises. Parents, carers, visitors and contractors are also prohibited from bringing them onto school premises or school-organised activities.
There are some exemptions. Principals can approve smart glasses for school-approved medical, accessibility or assistive technology purposes, as well as educational programs specifically authorised by the principal.
This means parents, grandparents and other visitors who already own smart glasses need to be aware that the rules apply to them too when they are on a WA public school site.
Is banning smart glasses enough?
I think this is where the conversation gets more interesting.
The policy deals with the technology we are seeing now. But technology doesn't stay still.
Smart glasses are only one form of wearable technology. We are already seeing AI being built into an expanding range of devices, and that trend is likely to continue.
For example, Meta recently announced Muse Charm, a small device designed to let people interact with its personal AI agent through voice. Meta has also announced plans to bring Muse to its AI glasses, allowing users to interact with the AI hands-free and have it respond to what they are looking at.
That matters for schools because the next privacy challenge may not look like a pair of glasses.
It could be another type of wearable device, camera or microphone.
The question for school leaders is therefore bigger than whether smart glasses should be allowed.
It is how school policies can respond to the function of a device, rather than simply naming one particular product.
School technology policies need to keep pace
One of the challenges with technology policies is that they can quickly become outdated.
A school might create a policy about mobile phones, then need to consider smart watches, smart glasses, AI-enabled devices and whatever comes next.
Rather than constantly adding another device to a list of banned or restricted technologies, schools may need policies that focus on the behaviours and risks involved.
For example:
Can the device record people?
Can it capture audio or images without others knowing?
Does it have access to AI?
Can it collect or process personal information?
Can it be used to access information during an assessment?
Does the person being recorded know what is happening?
What happens to the information that is collected?
These questions can apply to technologies that don't even exist yet.
That makes them much more useful than simply trying to predict the next device students might bring onto school grounds.
What does this mean for online safety education?
Policies are important, but they are only one part of the picture.
Students also need to understand why privacy and consent matter when technology makes recording and sharing easier.
This is particularly important as cameras, microphones and AI become increasingly integrated into everyday devices.
Online safety education can't just focus on the apps students are using today.
Students need transferable skills that help them think about privacy, consent, recording, sharing and the potential consequences of technology as it changes.
The same applies to parents.
You don't need to own a particular device to have a conversation with your child about it. You can ask what the technology does, what information it can collect, whether other people know when they are being recorded and what could happen to that information.
We need to prepare for the next device too
The WA smart glasses ban is an important response to a technology that creates genuine privacy and safety concerns in school environments.
But schools will need to keep reviewing these issues as wearable technology develops.
The challenge isn't just deciding what to do about smart glasses.
It is building school communities that understand why privacy, consent and responsible technology use matter, even when the next device looks completely different.
Technology will keep changing.
School policies need to be flexible enough to change with it.
And students need the critical thinking and online safety skills to navigate that technology when they leave the school gates too.
If your school is looking to build practical online safety, cyber safety and AI literacy skills with students, my school workshops explore the technology young people are actually encountering and give them practical tools to think critically and make informed decisions.
For schools looking at the broader questions around AI-enabled devices, privacy and emerging technology, Artificial Connection is designed to help students understand how new technologies are changing the way we interact, communicate and navigate the world around us.
