Horizon Worlds: Meta to open social VR platform to teens in the US and Canada
On Tuesday, Meta announced it would be opening up its Horizon Worlds social VR platform to teens in the US and Canada in the coming weeks. The platform will offer some extra features to help provide a safer experience to teens, which Meta defines as 13-17-year-olds.
As an example, teens’ profiles will be private by default, and Meta will not show their online status unless they choose to do so. A “voice mode” feature that garbles your own voice and turns the voices of strangers into “quiet, friendly noises” will also be on by default for the age group.
A teen player won’t see adults they don’t know in the “people you might know” tab. The company says its VR parental supervision tools are now available for Horizon Worlds as well.
Although the move has faced some criticism, it could bring more players to the platform, which has struggled to retain users.
In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta was planning to open Horizon Worlds to teens, and Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to halt the plans.
The senators wrote, “Meta’s plan to target young people with offerings in the metaverse is particularly concerning in light of your consistent failures to protect young users. With a documented track record of failure to protect children and teens, Meta has lost parents’, pediatricians’, policymakers’, and the public’s trust.”
Despite that opposition, Meta is moving forward with the launch. Markey said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal, “Meta has a record of abject failure to protect children and teens, and yet again, this company has chosen to put young users at risk so that it can make more money.”
Horizon Worlds is becoming more competitive with other metaverse-like platforms like Fortnite and Roblox, which also have special features designed to protect younger users. Horizon Worlds is also expected to be available on the web and on mobile in the near future.
