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When I was a preteen, social platforms barely existed, and those that did did not limit users’ interactions much. Today there are regulations all over the place, but while lack of them is much more noticeable. Meta, which is both a positive and negative representation of social media, is gradually allowing children below the age of 13, to sign up for Horizon Worlds, if they have their parent’s permission to use Meta.
Children that are within the ages of 10 to 12 can play games in Virtual Reality worlds such as The Space Station or Citadel with the content being given a 10+, 13+, or 18+ rating. Parents can then decide to approve all worlds in a specific age range, some or none at all and then let the child ask when they are ready.
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Some safety measures designed in the social site include voice chat limited only to parents’ approved contacts, a blocklist of contacts who will be suggested for contact in the future, automatic provision of offline status, and prohibited contact between avatars if they are too close. These are managed by parents and any person who wants to play something with Meta Quest 2 or 3 on their headset has to type in their date of birth again.
So, although these measures may appear to be quite comprehensive, parents may not fully entrust Meta. The company has low regard for youths’ welfare; the company has been accused and sued for allegedly addicting teenagers to its products and services and bluntly ignoring employees’ demands for improving child safety features. Here, you can find more details about Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg’s questionable choices such as the platform’s negligible measures to prevent more grown-up subscribers from sexually soliciting children on Facebook and Instagram platforms.