Petition on Student Recording

Students — disproportionately women — are being filmed on campus secretly by other students wearing camera glasses. This footage often lingers on their bodies and gets passed around online or in group chats. Often, it streams directly to servers owned by Snap or Meta, where the university has no say over who sees it or what happens to it.

Section 1 — Capture Indicators

This bans covering up any indicator that you are recording. Meta glasses have an LED that lights up while they're recording, but people buy stickers to cover it so you can't tell they're filming you. This bans that, and every version of it. Concealment is a violation by itself whether or not anyone can prove you actually recorded anything.

Section 2 — Targeted Recording and Distribution

You cannot intentionally record any single person for 6 seconds or more in a manner which could identify them, unless you notify them.

EXCEPTIONS:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Consent is required to film an individual. The person filming must give clear notice to the subject before six seconds of total recording. If the footage is posted, there has to be evidence notice was given unless the person who was filmed confirms they gave permission. Consent may be retracted at any time. The moment someone objects to being filmed any way, this exception ends, and anything being filmed after that is unprotected. Objection can be as simple as covering your face or walking away.

BLURRING. Identifying features must be blurred before sharing: clothing, build, etc can still be considered identifying features.

NEWS. Footage is allowed if it serves a newsworthy purpose or matter of public concern. Student journalism is not banned, no matter what the subject or viewpoint expressed is.

ASSISTIVE DEVICE. Registered assistive devices for blind students are exempt — eligibility criteria are in the full petition. People may not use Meta glasses if their vision could be corrected by other means.

Section 3 — Accessibility

A blind student may register a camera-equipped assistive device with disability services and use it to navigate, read text, and hear descriptions of their surroundings. This section defines legal blindness and specifies that someone whose vision is correctable with ordinary glasses can't claim the exception. A blind student cannot see or adjust whether their own indicator light is covered, so they are exempt from that requirement. Live assistive use isn't "targeted footage", but if that footage is saved or shared for anything else, Section 2's ban on targeted recording still applies.

Section 4 — Sanctions

Violations run through the university's existing student conduct process, penalties are up to and including expulsion. In setting the penalty (NOT in deciding whether a violation happened) the panel may weigh whether the person filmed says it caused harm to them, how long the camera ran before notice was given, and whether the person filmed was engaging with the camera at the time. Repeat violations are handled the same way the conduct process handles any repeat violation.

Section 5 — Authority

The Board of Visitors already has the authority to adopt this without any new law from the General Assembly. It stands apart from Virginia's existing bans on nudity and undergarment footage, and conduct banned here can still be pursued as sex-based harassment under Title IX.

Section 1 — Capture Indicators

Students may not disable, cover, obstruct, or otherwise conceal a device's capture indicator (e.g., a recording light) while the device is worn or carried on campus. Concealing the indicator is a violation independent of whether recording is shown to have occurred, except as modified by Section 3(c).

Section 2 — Targeted Recording and Distribution

Students may not intentionally record on campus, or knowingly distribute footage recorded on campus, in which, within a single recording, an identifiable student is framed to the substantial exclusion of the surrounding space or other people present — continuously for six (6) seconds or more, or cumulatively for six (6) seconds or more across repeated instances within that recording ("targeted footage"). For purposes of this section, a student is framed "to the substantial exclusion of the surrounding space or other people present" where that student is the central subject of the frame and occupies the substantial majority of it. The incidental presence of other people or background in the frame does not defeat this element. This section is applied without regard to the content, subject matter, viewpoint, or purpose of any footage. The exceptions below define the conduct that falls outside the section; they do not authorize any inquiry into the expressive content of footage. This section does not apply to footage that falls under any of the following:

(a) Acknowledged recording. Before the targeted footage reaches six (6) continuous or cumulative seconds, the operator affirmatively indicates to the student that recording is occurring, by stating so aloud, holding the device up, or another affirmative act that a reasonable person would understand as indicating that recording is occurring. General or prior permission does not constitute an affirmative indication. Where footage has been distributed, the operator must produce audio or visual evidence of the indication, unless the affected student confirms it occurred. Merely wearing, carrying, or orienting a device toward the student does not constitute an affirmative indication, and the visibility or illumination of a capture indicator alone does not constitute an affirmative indication. An indication occurring after the six-second threshold has been met does not cure a completed violation.

Where the operator has so indicated, continued recording under this section is not a violation until the student objects.

(i) An objection includes any observable indication that the student does not want to be recorded, whether verbal or nonverbal — for example, saying no or stop, covering their face, blocking or pushing away the device, or turning or walking away from it.

(ii) Once a student objects, this exception no longer applies. Footage captured before that point remains lawful.

(b) De-identification. The student's identifying features have been rendered unidentifiable, such as by blurring, before any distribution.

De-identification is not satisfied where the student remains identifiable by other means, including clothing, build, or context, notwithstanding the obscuring of the face.

(c) Newsworthiness. Nothing in this section shall be applied to prohibit the creation or publication of footage for a newsworthy purpose or matter of public concern, including student journalism. This exception exists to avoid burdening constitutionally protected activity and does not create a content-based standard for enforcement.

(d) Accessibility. The footage is captured under the exception in Section 3.

Section 3 — Accessibility Exception

(a) A student who is blind or legally blind — meaning visual acuity of 20/200 or worse in the better eye with best correction, or a visual field of 20 degrees or less — may use a registered camera-equipped assistive device for real-time environmental description, navigation, or object and text recognition. This exception does not extend to a student whose vision is correctable to typical functional levels with standard prescription lenses. (b) To qualify, the device must be registered with the university's disability services office as an approved accommodation. A student may request interim accommodation while documentation is pending. (c) For a student who qualifies under (a) and (b), Section 1 applies only where concealment of the indicator is knowing. Inadvertent obstruction that the student could not discover through reasonable means — because the student cannot visually verify the indicator's status — is not a violation. (d) Footage generated through real-time assistive processing under this section is not "targeted footage" under Section 2. Retention or distribution of that footage for any purpose beyond the assistive use remains subject to Section 2.

Section 4 — Sanctions

Violations of this policy are subject to discipline through the University's existing student conduct process, up to and including Dismissal (expulsion). In determining the appropriate sanction for a violation of Section 2, the adjudicating body may weigh mitigating and aggravating factors, including:

(i) whether the affected student, through the conduct process, indicates that the conduct did not cause them harm — such an indication is relevant to sanctioning only and does not affect the determination that a violation of Section 2 has occurred;

(ii) the duration of targeted footage captured before any affirmative indication occurred, including whether the indication occurred shortly after the six-second threshold was met; and

(iii) whether the affected student, at the time of the recording, visibly and unambiguously engaged with the recording device.

Section 5 — Authority

Adopted under the Board of Visitors' authority under Va. Code § 23.1-1301(B)(6) to adopt regulations or institution policies for the conduct of students in attendance and for the suspension and dismissal of students who fail or refuse to abide by such regulations or policies. This policy is independent of Va. Code §§ 18.2-386.1–.2, which govern recording or distributing images involving nudity or undergarment exposure and do not reach the conduct addressed in Section 2. Conduct violating Section 2 may separately constitute sex-based harassment under Title IX where it is severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, and may be referred as such regardless of whether it independently violates this policy.