While innovative devices like Meta’s virtual reality headsets have the potential to be revolutionary, the risks associated with cybersecurity make them especially dangerous for children.
Despite pressure from lawmakers to stop targeting younger users with its VR services, Facebook parent company Meta plans to lower the minimum age for its virtual reality headsets from 13 to 10.
Starting later this year, parents will be able to create accounts for children under 10 on Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets, the company announced in a blog post Friday.
According to the company, preteens will need their parents’ consent before creating an account or downloading apps to a device.
The social media giant has also promised to provide “age-appropriate experiences” such as recommending appropriate apps using children’s ages.
“Our platform features engaging and educational apps, games and more, most of which are rated for ages 10 and up,” Meta said in the post.
The company is pushing the minimum age as social media companies like Meta and others come under increasing scrutiny for their effects on young users, including the possibility that they have negative effects on mental health. can fall or send children down rabbit holes of hazardous materials.
Concerns about teenagers and children using virtual reality (VR) and the “metaverse,” a future version of the Internet, have been raised in particular by parents and lawmakers.
According to JEE News, two Democratic senators urged Meta to halt plans to make Horizon Worlds, the company’s flagship VR app, available to 13- to 17-year-olds, claiming that the technology could harm users’ physical and mental health. Can harm mental health.
In another letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called Meta’s proposal “unacceptable” in light of the company’s “record of failure to protect children and adolescents.”
However, Meta moved forward with its plan in April to allow youth under the age of 13 to use Horizon Worlds in the US and Canada, drawing additional criticism from lawmakers and civil society organizations.
Last year, JEE News reported stories of parents struggling to find effective ways to protect their children after learning they were viewing violent and disturbing content in virtual reality.
In a blog post published Friday, Meta announced parental time restrictions and timeouts for children using the VR headset. Users under the age of 13 have private accounts and app statuses, unless changed. Meta also aims to allow parents to cast content to a TV or phone screen.
Meta said it will not serve ads to users under 13 and will allow parents to use their child’s data to improve the service, while Horizon Worlds is 13 and older in the US and Canada. Limited to users in Europe and 18 years of age.
Meta’s headset and Horizon Worlds aim for next-generation internet but struggle to attract a mainstream audience.
