Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses with camera

Kmart Camera Glasses vs Ray-Ban Meta: What Parents Should Know About Safety, Privacy and Children

Written by the optometrists at Rose Optometry, Hamilton. Last reviewed 21 September 2026.

In August, Kmart began selling $99 camera glasses in New Zealand. In Australia the same product sold out within a week and prompted the Attorney-General to ask the privacy regulator to look into it, citing "serious safety concerns for women and children". Parents have been asking us whether these are "the same as the Meta ones".

They are not. But the honest answer is not "one is safe and one is dangerous" either. This guide covers what is actually different, what the real risks to children are, and what we would suggest families do.

A declaration first: Rose Optometry is approved as an authorised stockist of Ray-Ban Meta in New Zealand from the moment it is released here. We have a commercial interest, so we have kept to published specifications and named sources, and we set out Meta's weaknesses as well as its strengths.

The short version

  • Both products put a camera, microphones and speakers into an ordinary-looking frame. Both can film people who may not realise it.
  • The biggest difference is not image quality. It is the safeguards built around the camera: whether the recording light can be defeated, whether an account and age check sit between the buyer and the camera, and who is accountable for the data.
  • The biggest difference for children is price and access. At $99 on a supermarket-style shelf, camera glasses become a pocket-money or impulse purchase, and that is the concern child-safety advocates are raising.

Side by side

Kmart Anko Camera Glasses Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2)
Price (NZ) $99 From $629 (frame)
Where sold Off the shelf at general retail, no fitting Optical and specialist retailers; at Rose, fitted in person
Record of sale Anonymous purchase possible (cash, in store) At Rose, every serial number is recorded against the buyer's name, email and phone number under our terms and conditions (see below)
Camera Photos up to 8MP, video up to 1080p. Standard lens; no wide-angle lens is listed. 12MP ultra-wide lens, video up to 3K
Recording indicator Manual says a blue light and the left flash light stay on while recording. We found no published protection against the light being covered. Capture LED. Since a mandatory July 2026 update, the camera will not take photos or video if the light is covered, tampered with or destroyed.
Account and age HeyCyan app. The only age wording we found is "not a toy, keep out of reach of young children". Requires a Meta account and the Meta AI app; Meta's terms set a minimum age of 13.
Data Product pages and manual do not say where images or AI data are processed. AI service ends after 6 months unless paid for. Governed by Meta's published privacy policy, with the scrutiny and regulatory exposure of a very large company.
Eye protection Reviewers note the product is not certified for UV or impact protection. Ray-Ban sun and prescription lenses with UV protection, glazed and adjusted by an optician.

Surveillance versus function: does the camera type matter?

People often ask whether one camera is a "spy camera" and the other isn't. Both cameras point wherever the wearer is looking, and neither zooms. But the lenses are built for different jobs. Meta's is an ultra-wide lens designed to capture the whole scene as you see it: the view from a bike, a child's first steps, a menu read aloud to someone with low vision. Everyone in the general direction you face is in frame, and no single person is picked out. The Kmart glasses list no wide-angle lens; the camera is a standard narrow-field lens of the kind used in small recording devices, which frames a tighter view of whatever, or whoever, is directly in front of the wearer. Neither is a long-range surveillance camera. To get a clear close image of one particular person with either product, the wearer has to be physically near them.

So the useful distinction is not megapixels. It is whether the product is designed so that the people being filmed can tell, and whether that signal can be switched off. On that measure, Meta's current design is ahead: covering or damaging the light now disables the camera, and Meta has said it will pursue people selling modifications that defeat the light.

That is a real safeguard, but it is not a complete one. A small light in daylight is easy to miss, and Australian reporting this year includes people who were filmed without noticing. A light that works only helps if people know what it means. It is worth teaching children what these glasses look like.

The concern for children

New Zealand child-safety organisation Makes Sense works to prevent online sexual harm, grooming and exploitation of children. Its co-founder Holly Brooker has said of the Kmart glasses: "They're selling these at scale, which tells society the product is fine. Yet there are significant privacy issues here."

We share that concern, and there are three risks in it.

  1. Children being filmed. Camera glasses make it easier to film children covertly in places where a raised phone would be noticed: pools, changing areas, playgrounds, school events. The lower the price and the weaker the indicator, the lower the barrier.
  2. Children wearing them. A $99 pair is within reach of a teenager's savings or an unthinking gift. A young person wearing a camera and microphone all day can be pressured or groomed into filming themselves, their friends or their home, and sharing it. Images captured "for fun" can be used for bullying or sextortion.
  3. Normalisation. When camera glasses sit next to school stationery, children learn that wearing a hidden camera is ordinary, before anyone has taught them what consent looks like.

None of these risks is unique to Kmart. They apply to any camera glasses, including the ones we sell. Price, account age checks and a light that cannot be defeated all raise the barrier, but none of them removes it.

What the law in New Zealand does, and doesn't, cover

  • The Privacy Act 2020 mainly regulates businesses and organisations, not individuals recording in public. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has said this itself.
  • Making an intimate visual recording of someone without consent is a criminal offence under the Crimes Act, whatever device is used.
  • The Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 covers posting or sharing digital content intended to cause serious harm.
  • Privacy law experts have told RNZ and 1News that everyday covert filming largely falls between these laws. If you think a child has been filmed or exploited, contact Netsafe or the Police.

What we suggest for families

  • Know what they look like. Show your children a pair, and point out the light near the hinge. Teach them it is fine to say "please take those off" or to walk away.
  • Treat camera glasses like a smartphone, not sunglasses. They are a camera, a microphone and an internet-connected app. The same rules about age, supervision and where they may be used apply.
  • We don't recommend camera glasses for children. We don't fit them for children at Rose. For young people, the eyewear conversation we would rather have is about myopia control.
  • Ask schools, clubs and pools about their policy. Many UK venues now ban camera glasses outright. It is reasonable for NZ changing rooms and school settings to do the same.
  • If you buy any pair, buy for a reason. The strongest case for camera glasses is accessibility. Blind Low Vision NZ has called them a "game changer" for people with low vision. That case deserves a proper fitting and proper aftercare, not an impulse buy.

What camera glasses are actually good for

It is easy to lose sight of why adults want these at all. The legitimate uses are real, and most of them depend on the wide, first-person view and hands-free capture that make a Meta-style camera different from a pocket recorder:

  • Accessibility. For people who are blind or have low vision, a camera and voice assistant at eye level, with both hands free, can read a label, describe a room or connect them to a sighted helper. Blind Low Vision NZ has called the technology a "game changer".
  • Sports vision and technique. A first-person recording of a golf swing, a cricket shot or a tennis serve shows what the athlete's eyes were doing, where they were looking and when, in a way a phone on a tripod cannot. We use eye-tracking and first-person footage in sports vision work, and this is one of the more useful things a wearable camera can do.
  • On-course and on-field information. Asking for the distance to the pin, the wind, or a rule clarification without stopping to pull out a phone, and hearing the answer through open-ear speakers while still hearing your playing partners.
  • Hands-busy work. Clinicians, tradespeople, cooks and parents who want to capture or call without putting anything down.
  • Everyday audio. Music, podcasts and calls without earbuds, so traffic and conversation are still audible.

None of these needs the camera pointed at a stranger. That is the point: the product is designed around the wearer's own view and activity.

Where Rose stands

We are an approved authorised stockist of Ray-Ban Meta and will carry it from the moment it is released in New Zealand, because for many adults, particularly people with low vision, they do real good, and because a camera on someone's face should come with fitting, advice and an optometrist asking what it is for. We will not fit camera glasses for children. We will talk anyone through the privacy side before they buy, and we will keep this page updated as the law and the products change.

We keep a register of every pair we sell. As part of our terms and conditions, we record the serial number of each pair against the buyer's name, email address and phone number. If law enforcement ever needs to identify who bought a particular pair, that record exists. We think anyone selling a wearable camera should be able to say the same.

Who to contact if you are concerned

  • If a child is in immediate danger: call Police on 111. For non-urgent matters, 105.
  • Online harm, grooming or intimate images shared without consent: Netsafe, free helpline 0508 638 723, or text Netsafe to 4282.
  • Privacy complaints and questions about being recorded: Office of the Privacy Commissioner, 0800 803 909.
  • Child online safety advocacy and parent education: Makes Sense (Holly Brooker and Jo Robertson), info@makessense.org.nz.
  • Questions about the glasses themselves, fitting or suitability: Rose Optometry, 38 Lake Road, Frankton, Hamilton, 07 847 3195, info@roseoptom.co.nz.

For our broader view of camera glasses and privacy, see Camera glasses are about to become ordinary in New Zealand.

Sources

Ray-Ban, Meta, Kmart and Anko are trademarks of their respective owners. This article gives general information and is not legal advice.

Back to blog