Norway’s government wants to ban the use of AI glasses in selected public places. It announced the intention on 5 October 2026 and says it will return to the Storting, Norway’s parliament, with a bill. No draft text has been published, so the details below describe an announced plan.
The government’s own term is KI-briller, Norwegian for AI glasses. Its announcement on regjeringen.no is titled “Vil innføre midlertidig forbud mot KI-briller”, and we could not read it: the page blocked automated access on 12 October 2026 and has no archived copy. The substance below comes from NRK’s report of 5 October, from the trade outlet KOM24, which reproduced the release, and from the Financial Times, read through Ars Technica’s copy, which treated the plan as the first major government crackdown on AI glasses.
Where the ban would apply, and why no final list exists
The government’s announcement, as reproduced by KOM24, describes a temporary ban on the use of AI glasses at “utvalgte steder”, selected places, and gives two groups of examples. The first covers places where the public regularly moves about: parks, beaches, museums, shopping centres and public events. The second covers places where children are: schools, kindergartens, playgrounds and youth clubs. Health institutions, gyms, universities and colleges are under consideration as well.
No final list exists. Outlets that covered the announcement named different subsets of the same government listing: the Financial Times names parks, beaches, schools and kindergartens, and NRK names schools, hospitals, shopping centres and parks. Both lists are consistent with a single government listing.
No total ban, no import ban and no enforcement rules yet
It is not a total ban. No import ban, sales ban or manufacturing restriction has been proposed for Norway, and no enforcement mechanism, fine or responsible authority has been announced. Without a bill, none of that exists to be written down. The stated target is the use of recording-capable glasses in places where people expect not to be monitored, and the government’s announcement leaves open which technology counts and whether rules should also cover other body-near technology with a camera, audio recording or AI.
Why the government says it needs a ban
Torgeir Micaelsen, the minister of digitalisation and public administration, framed the plan around recording that people do not notice. “I am concerned that new, powerful technology is being introduced where people risk being photographed, filmed or audio-recorded without knowing it,” he said, as reproduced by KOM24 (translation ours). The Financial Times carries a second line in English: “We do not want a society where people are concerned about hidden audio recordings, photography, and filming in places and situations where they are used to being without being monitored.” Both lines come from the sources that carried the release.
The duration is undefined and the bill has no date
“Temporary” has no defined length in this proposal. The ban would run until permanent national rules exist, and no end date, sunset clause or maximum period has been stated. The government has promised a bill to the Storting without saying when it will arrive. The expert group that would advise on permanent regulation has not been appointed, and no mandate or hearing has been published.
The minister’s caveat about which law, and about imports
In an NRK interview on 15 September 2026, Micaelsen said it is not obvious which law or which part of the chain should be regulated, and that Norwegian rules have to fit European ones because products bought legally abroad can be brought into the country. “Me er like langt viss ein kan kjøpe produkta lovleg i andre land og ta dei med hit,” he said, which translates roughly as: we are no further ahead if people can buy the products legally in other countries and bring them here. He also said a ban could allow exceptions, for example for blind users.
Schools and Equinor restricted AI glasses before the government moved
Some Norwegian institutions already treat AI glasses as a problem. Aftenposten reported in September 2026 that schools in Oslo and Bærum had brought in bans, and the Financial Times confirmed the Oslo ones. Equinor requires special permission to use them at its offices and offshore installations, as reported by Energiwatch and Stavanger Aftenblad. Those restrictions were introduced by schools and by one company, and the government proposal would extend that approach nationally.
Australia’s national plan is privacy reform and local bans
The Financial Times wrote that Australia “is considering a ban on smart glasses in certain public spaces”. The verified position is narrower. On 31 August 2026, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland released draft second-tranche privacy legislation that includes a right to erasure and drafting meant to cover emerging technology such as smart glasses, and said the government is not currently considering an import ban: “We are not specifically, in this consultation, consulting on an import ban.” She said nothing had been ruled out and signalled that local councils and businesses, such as shops with changing rooms, could restrict use. That is from ABC News’s report of the announcement.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has recommended design safeguards for the industry, among them automatic face blurring, clear visual recording indicators, limits on what wearers can retrieve about members of the public, disabling recording when the glasses are not being worn, and delays or moderation for livestreaming. It said the harms from covert recording “are not hypothetical. They are real and already occurring”, and that asking users to behave responsibly “is not an adequate safety policy”. ABC News reported the recommendations on 6 September and quoted the commissioner; the eSafety site itself blocked our access.
Local bans are where Australia has acted. On 25 August 2026 Brisbane City Council announced it would become the first Australian council to bar non-consensual filming with camera-enabled devices at its public pools, adding a condition of entry across its 21 pools and giving lifeguards the power to remove people who breach it. ABC News reported in September that Gold Coast and Adelaide were considering similar measures. The Greens, with independents, intend to bring a bill that would pause imports of wearable recording devices for at least 12 months; the federal government rejected that approach.
California’s wearable recording bill was vetoed
California’s SB 1130 would have made it unlawful to record people without consent with wearable recording devices in places where privacy is expected, such as changing rooms and doctors’ offices. It would have required smart glasses and other wearables to show a light or other recording indicator from 2028, and banned the sale of technology designed to conceal a recording light or sound. Penalties were reported as up to $1,500 or prison for individuals and up to $2,500 for non-compliant manufacturers.
Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill on 30 September 2026. His veto letter said the definition of a wearable recording device was too broad or imprecise, and that California already bars recording people without consent in spaces where they expect privacy. TechNet, a group whose members include executives from Meta, Google and Amazon, opposed the bill. The veto letter and the bill text were not readable with our tools, so these details come from the Associated Press report carried by ABC News and from TechCrunch.
Where the “pervert glasses” label comes from
“Pervert technology” and “pervert glasses” are campaigner, critic and media labels for these devices. The Financial Times says the glasses were “dubbed ‘pervert technology’ by some campaigners”, Australian coverage described council pool bans on “‘pervert’ glasses”, and Norwegian media quote the term “pervobriller”. The government’s own terms are KI-briller and kroppsnær teknologi, body-near technology.
What Counterpoint forecasts, and what Meta claims about its glasses
Counterpoint Research forecasts that consumer wearables will generate more than $1 trillion in cumulative revenue between 2026 and 2032, in an insight published on 19 August 2026. That is a third-party market forecast for consumer wearables generally, not a prediction about regulation or about glasses alone.
Vendor positions sit separately from anything a government has said. Meta, Google and OpenAI are all pushing glasses as an AI interface. Meta says its glasses show a light while recording, that privacy is a priority, and that the devices have accessibility uses, including glasses provided to blinded veterans. The Associated Press reports Meta sold more than 7 million AI-powered glasses in 2025. Meta’s Ray-Ban line is the product Norwegian coverage of the proposal has focused on.