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Anyone with a parent-managed Meta account will soon be able to request access to Horizon Worlds for their preteen.
Preteens can request access to individual worlds, which must be granted by parents. It’s also possible for parents to bulk-approve worlds with certain ratings (e.g. all 13+ worlds).
No 18+ worlds are viewable or accessible by anyone with a parent-managed account.
Meta is also rolling out a new rating system specifically for Horizon Worlds. Worlds will be rated ages 10+, ages 13+, and ages 18+, though specific ages may vary depending on region.
To protect preteens in Horizon Worlds, Meta has added built-in protection and age-appropriate settings that parents can customize. For example, voice chat is disabled by default, with the exception of parent-approved contacts.
Preteens are not visible online (their profiles are set to private) by default, so nobody can follow them, which can be changed by parents. Meta’s personal boundary prevents anyone from getting too close to preteens, and this setting cannot be changed.
Meta aims to offer preteens access to age-appropriate spaces and will initially offer children “Starter Worlds,” or default worlds deemed appropriate for ages 10+. This should provide preteens with an easy and safe way to get started in Horizon Worlds. Later, parents can grant access to other worlds as they deem appropriate.
Anyone with a parent-managed account can access Meta Horizon Worlds. These accounts rolled out in September 2023, and are designed to allow 10 to 12 year olds to safely enjoy age-appropriate content.
Is VR a Safe Place for Preteens?
The news that Meta is allowing minors to access Horizon Worlds will undoubtedly raise safety concerns. Meta collaborated with families, parents, and third-party organizations and advisors to plan its preteen experience, and its Trust, Transparency, and Control Labs team has published a report of its findings.
The company’s co-design research workshops with families in the UK, US, Australia, and Ireland looked at things like how to identify safety-by-design and privacy-by-default principles for kids as well as how to understand what insights and controls parents want to manage their child’s experiences.
This news comes after Meta announced in July that it would let preteens interact with others using a Meta Quest headset, with parental approval. The social media giant lowered the minimum recommended age for Quest headsets from 13 to 10 in June 2023. In contrast, most VR headset manufacturers insist on a minimum age of 13 for their headsets; for Sony, it’s 12.
At the time, critics expressed concerns that cyberbullies or predators could target children in VR. With this most recent announcement, it does seem like Meta has put in place a new range of default settings to prevent that from happening, or at least reduce the risk to preteens.
Meta isn’t the only company to face concerns about minors accessing VR. Not only are there the ubiquitous safety concerns, but also the fact that we don’t know enough about the effect of VR headsets on children.
The proximity of the screen in a VR headset can cause eyestrain for children, particularly when using the headset for a prolonged period of time. There’s also the cumulative effect of too much screen time, alongside the issue of neck strain from heavy headsets designed for adult use. Children can be particularly susceptible to motion sickness, and could be more prone to injury when moving around while wearing a VR headset.
Meta Has Faced Previous Child Safety Concerns
Then there are the more general concerns about child safety in relation to Meta. Earlier this year, the European Commission opened an investigation into child safety over concerns that its social media platforms could be damaging childrens’ mental health and creating addictive behavior.
The investigation will look into the company’s privacy settings and age verification tools for minors, as well as so-called “rabbit-hole” effects where preteens are fed negative content.
It’s not the first time the company has come under the spotlight for child safety concerns. In June, Instagram was found recommending sexually explicit reels to children as young as 13. Despite the implementation of privacy updates designed to protect younger users, these reels were still being recommended to younger users, according to experiments carried out by the Wall Street Journal.
In the case of Horizon Worlds, the new age rating system and built-in parental controls should, theoretically, protect preteens from experiencing anything that’s not age appropriate. However, we’ll need to wait and see if this is actually the case once access rolls out to preteens.
