The Digital Assault on Women’s Consent: TFGBV Has Found a New Frontier.

By Belamy Boson Communications Strategist

Smart glasses look like ordinary eyewear, but are being used to covertly record women in public spaces, without their knowledge or consent.

As we come to the close of the second month of 2026, we have already seen some truly scary developments as far as TFGBV and women’s online safety is concerned.

Late December into early January, we witnessed Grok, the AI chatbot built into X (formerly Twitter), being misused to digitally strip and undress women’s photos online, without their knowledge and without their consent. Though not an intended feature, the misuse of the tool and the platform’s inexcusable slow response made the platform complicit in the harm that followed.

Ordinary photos that women had posted freely were being fed into this tool and returned as something deeply violating. The scale of it was shocking. In just eleven days, over three million sexualised images were generated, with thousands of those depicting minors. Millions of violations. Millions of women who may never even know it happened to them.

Then a new and equally alarming trend began to emerge. Smart glasses. Devices with inbuilt audio and video recording mechanisms are increasingly being misused to covertly record women in public spaces without their consent. These recordings are later shared online without their knowledge.

These are not hidden spy gadgets. They are commercially available, they look like ordinary eyewear, and they are being used in malls, on streets, in everyday spaces where women move freely and unsuspectingly. Several women have come forward with accounts of being approached, recorded up close, and later finding themselves as content on the internet. Content they never agreed to be.

It is frightening to think that an innocent photo of yourself posted online could be manipulated into something it is not. It is equally frightening to think that you could be recorded in public, up close, without even knowing. And yet here we are.

TFGBV is evolving and it is evolving fast. Two incidents. Two different technologies. One consistent pattern .The complete disregard for women’s consent. Whether it is an AI chatbot or a pair of smart glasses, the violation is the same. A woman’s image, her body, her private moment — taken and used without her ever saying yes.

No woman should be pushed out of the digital space because of fear of being digitally undressed. No woman should have to think twice about posting a photo because an AI tool could manipulate it into something she never consented to . And no woman should have to wonder, walking through a mall or down a street, whether the stranger who smiled at her was recording her.

This is not only just about awareness but accountability . From the tech companies building these tools, from the platforms that are slow to act, and from the policymakers who must urgently update legal frameworks to reflect the reality women are living.

If you have experienced any form of online violence, report it to the platform, report it to local authorities, and reach out to us at SafeOnline Women Kenya.

The technology will keep evolving. Our determination to protect women’s dignity, both online and off, must evolve with it.