A month ago, we wrote about Meta’s plans to open access to the virtual reality (VR) platform Horizon Worlds to 13- to 17-year-old teenagers as early as March. The main purpose of this was to increase the number of users and overall activity, which is still quite low on this platform. However, “Meta” has faced opposition from US senators, who believe that opening Horizon Worlds to teenagers is a very ill-considered step and can harm privacy and security.
Democrats Ed Merkey and Richard Blumenthal have urged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to drop plans to open access to Horizon Worlds to under-18s. The senators believe that “Meta” is unable to ensure the privacy and data security of children and adolescents in its services. Also, new evidence is emerging that various threats are being made to new users in the metaverse environment.
In justifying their opinion, the senators referred to several cases when, using “Meta” services, the privacy of new users was threatened, as well as their mental health was harmed. As one example, a report published by “Met” himself in 2021 revealed that Instagram is harming many teenagers, especially girls, who have been bullied and undermined their self-esteem. Also, the senators referred to the “Common Sense Media” study, which informs that the use of VR glasses can cause nausea, eye fatigue, and affect privacy in young people.
In response to these statements, “Meta” stated that the “Quest” VR glasses it offers are suitable for use from the age of 13, so it is only normal that access to “Horizon Worlds” is also opened to teenagers. For now, however, the platform can still be used only by users who have reached the age of 18. “Meta” also reports that the number of active users of “Horizon Worlds” was around 200,000 in January. The company plans to attract half a million users by the end of June, and a million users by the end of the year.
