Meta to lower age for Virtual Reality headset users to 10 from 13

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, plans to lower the recommended age for using its Quest headset from 13 to 10, the company said in a statement. blog post on Friday, a move that could raise new concerns about privacy and security among parents and global watchdogs.

The company is discussing its plans with regulators, two people with knowledge of Meta’s conversations said, trying to address immediate concerns about whether younger children using the headset could be at greater risk.

Meta said it would require parental approval from a young teen to create an account, and young users would only see apps and content rated for the young teen age group. The Quest headset allows people to enter the so-called metaverse, an immersive online world, and play virtual reality games and other tasks.

Over the past year, Meta has been slowly lowering age restrictions on its virtual reality apps to reach a younger audience. In April, the company said it would allow people under the age of 18 to use Horizon Worlds, its virtual reality-based social network. Horizon Worlds will remain limited for users 13 and older, as previously reported by The Verge.

In its blog post, Meta said it was making the age change of the Quest headset “to give families even more ways to use and enjoy Meta Quest.” It added that it is committed to “building safe, positive experiences for young people.”

The use of technology by teens and children has long been a controversial topic. Last month, the United States Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued a public warning about the risks of social media for young people, urging an effort to fully understand the potential “damage to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents”. .”

Virtual reality is a relatively new field and its risks are still emerging. But harassment, assault, bullying and hate speech are already rampant in virtual reality games, which are part of the metaverse, and there are few mechanisms for easily reporting misconduct, researchers said.

As concerns have increased, regulators have taken action. The Federal Trade Commission recently stepped up its crackdown on technology companies for violating a federal law on children’s privacy. That law, called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, requires sites and apps targeting young people to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information — such as an email address or precise location — from a child under age 13.

Meta and its platforms have been a particular concern for regulators. Last month, the FTC said it was considering action to ban Meta from profiting from young people’s data across all of its platforms — including Instagram and Horizon Worlds — and that the company’s “recklessness” has put young users at risk. Meta then asked a federal court to block the agency’s proposed action.

The age change for the Quest headset comes as building a virtual reality-based version of the metaverse has become critical to the future of Meta. Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder and CEO, has spent the past two years shifting his social networking business into the metaverse. Last year, he spent nearly $14 billion expanding Reality Labs, the company’s arm dedicated to building hardware and developing the metaverse.

The high cost of turning the metaverse into a mainstream business spooked Wall Street, causing Meta’s stock to plummet last year. Enthusiasm for the metaverse has also waned over the past year as more technologists have joined the rise of artificial intelligence with the release of chatbots like ChatGPT. Mr. Zuckerberg has similarly pushed for AI to be included in Meta’s products.

But he’s also said he remains committed to the metaverse. At a company-wide meeting last week, Mr. Zuckerberg assured his employees that he was committed to his virtual reality and augmented reality plans and that it would go a long way toward realizing his vision.

Lowering the minimum age for the company’s Quest headset could help familiarize younger audiences with the metaverse, similar to how Facebook initially started on college campuses in 2004, so they’re more likely to continue using the technology as they get older. become older.

Meta is likely trying to integrate into young people’s lives, following a strategy used by other gaming companies, including Roblox, Microsoft with its Minecraft game, and Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. Those games have a combined user base of hundreds of millions, many of whom are under the age of 35.

“What we’ve seen is that, based solely on business requirements, Meta is continually lowering the age of their virtual reality products and doing so without any evidence that these things are safe for young people,” said Josh Golin, Fairplay’s executive director. , a nonprofit children’s advocacy group. “It’s beyond the pale and clearly driven by the fact that they’re trying to compete for a market, not driven by the needs of children.”

Meta is working to assure regulators it will provide parental controls to keep young users safe when using the device, according to the two people with knowledge of the company’s plans who spoke on condition of anonymity. Some of them include time limits, parental controls over content or apps, and privacy settings that don’t allow other people using Horizon Worlds to track young teens without their or their parents’ consent.

The company said it would use data from young teens experimenting with the Quest headset to provide an “age-appropriate experience” but will not show ads to the age group. Parents can also delete their children’s profiles and associated data.