February 19, 2026 — Meta, the company that brought addictive algorithms to social media, appears to be doubling down on its record of apparently bad decisions.
Mehta executives plan to add AI facial recognition to its smart glasses made by Ray-Ban and Oakley, even as the company faces a high-profile court case over its campaign to hook kids on Instagram.
The New York Times reported over the weekend that “the feature, known internally as ‘name tag,’ allows wearers of the smart glasses to identify people and retrieve information about them through Meta’s artificial intelligence assistant.”
Exactly why we need safety measures
In other words, anyone wearing Meta’s spy glasses can scan a child’s face and recall a large amount of data about the child. Or post your face online. Or use it to create deepfakes.
gross. no way. Creepy. Dangerous.
The Spyglass project comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made global headlines this week on the witness stand.
Wired reports that Zuckerberg will appear in court on Wednesday “to answer questions about whether meta products such as Facebook and Instagram were used intentionally.” Designed to be addictive— and as well as allegations that the tech giant was intentionally targeting tweens and teens with strategies to boost engagement. mental health crisis”
His testimony came as part of a monumental social media addiction lawsuit brought by parents whose children were harmed by addictive algorithms designed by YouTube and Meta’s Instagram.
In 2024, Zuckerberg asserted that “our job is to make sure we build the tools to keep people safe,” and that “we stand with parents everywhere who work hard to raise their children.” The evidence tells a different story. Meta knew the risks from the beginning, targeting children and teenagers to “hook the youth,” directing them to harmful content to maximize engagement, warning of harm in an internal investigation and comparing its practices to Big Tobacco.
Old “COPPA” law needs to be updated as soon as possible
Child health advocates are raising worrying questions about the potential negative effects of facial recognition surveillance on children.
One immediate concern is that facial recognition glasses may violate COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Act of 1998 (COPPA)). This is a federal law that requires operators of online services to obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing the personal information of users under the age of 13. COPPA mandates strict privacy policies and data security, but it was created nearly 30 years ago, before the rise of social media and artificial intelligence.
New products cause deep concern
It is clear that the collection of the most personal information, a child’s own face associated with identity data, may constitute a violation of COPPA. What’s unclear is whether meth players are willing to risk legal exposure in the name of boosting sales.
Of course, there are deeper issues beyond the legal issues at hand. The exposure of children under and over 13 to constant video digital surveillance and the ability to recall large amounts of data about them with a single glance raises questions about children’s freedom to engage in the messy task of growing, learning, changing, stumbling, failing, succeeding, and growing under the surveillance of their peers, passing strangers, and a global digital world.
Lawmakers at the state and federal level have introduced updates to COPPA, but most have stalled. In Congress, the main bill is known as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). This bipartisan measure protects minors (up to age 18) by requiring digital platforms to implement strict safety measures such as default privacy settings, parental controls, and mitigation of risks such as cyberbullying and self-harm. Introduces a “duty of care” for tech companies, allowing state agencies and the FTC to enforce compliance.
Other bills have had some success at the state level. Last year, Arkansas adopted the state version of COPPA 2.0. This law protects online privacy for minors up to age 16 by limiting the information that companies can collect without their permission.
