Whenever a new piece of technology comes out, I always think about how it might be used to assault and abuse women and girls. It’s sad that I have to, but that’s the world we live in.

Air tags – brilliant idea for someone like me for those moments when my husband is not around to use his superpower of Knowing Where I Have Put Things.  Not so brilliant if they are used by an abusive partner, or even a stranger – most often a man on a woman – for stalking purposes.

At least if you have an app on your phone, like some members of my family do, you can choose to do that, or you at least know it is there. I had a message from my sister a couple of years ago asking me if I’d been murdered and put in a skip because the Google earth photos Life 360 uses were out of date. I was in fact at the Book Festival in Edinburgh’s new venue which had been a building site a couple of years before.  But I knowingly gave her the ability to track my every move.

Similarly, if someone, again, most often a man, is filming, again, mostly women for God knows what purposes using a camera phone, at least you have a chance of being aware that he is doing it, although often you won’t be aware. Not so much if he is using smart glasses, which allow you to see an augmented reality and can be used as a camera. As a friend told me “I’ve been filmed by men before and at least with a phone you can see that they are doing it.”

These things have the potential to bring a whole load more pain to an already unsafe world for women and girls.

So it was really good  to see that the party is aware of this. Yesterday they put up a social media image saying:

Nobody should be secretly filmed through smart glasses and have it shared with millions online.

Liberal Democrats are demanding stronger safeguards, including a ban on convicted sex offenders being able to purchase them.

How on earth is that solution enforceable?

And anyone with nefarious purposes doesn’t have to purchase them. They just have to borrow a mate’s.

And if it is enforceable, surely anyone convicted of domestic abuse, particularly coercive control, should not be allowed within a million miles of these things.

I’m not sure what the solution is, but education and awareness is a huge part of it, as is making sure that anyone who films someone with or without their knowledge and shares it online faces very serious consequences that significantly restrict their liberty.But the biggest problem with yesterday’s social media post was the accompanying image:

Under no circumstances should serious abuse be trivialised with a not particularly smart quip.

It might be an idea when producing posts on sensitive issues to run them past the official organisation representing women in the party, Lib Dem Women.

I have discussed it with a fair few women, members of Lib Dem Women and not, who were not impressed by this.  Comments ranged from “Yuck” to “This is not on. Not a matter for lame jokes.””Not befitting and not funny” “It’s beneath us as a party who have done so much to get this issue recognised.”

So I hope that in the future we will see more reflection and consultation before making these sorts of posts.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social