Meta Opening Up Horizon Worlds to Preteens
Meta’s 3D social platform is now opening up to preteens aged between 10 and 12.
Previously, Meta’s Horizon Worlds was only accessible to users aged 13 and above, with parental supervision features for users in the 13 to 17 age bracket. Now it is opening up to even younger users aged between 10 and 12 who will now access the 3D social platform with parental approval.
As Meta lowers the minimum age, it has also given parents significant control over the kinds of experiences that preteens can access. The experiences on the platform will also have age ratings to assist parents in determining the most appropriate content for their preteens.
Preteens will use a parent-managed Meta account to access content on Horizon Worlds and they will have to place a request to access content on the social platform. There are several layers of parental controls. The parent must approve the request to access Horizon Worlds upon which the preteen must again request access to individual experiences on the platform. Alternatively, the parents can check a setting that will enable their preteens to simply access all content that lie within a certain age rating. Meta will be rating experiences for different age groups: age 10 and up, age 13 and up, and age 18 and up.
Meta has also implemented additional protections for preteens. In the Meta accounts managed by parents, voice chat has been disabled although parents can approve voice chats with certain contacts.
Preteens will appear offline by default unless parents change the setting to make them appear online. Accounts managed by parents will also have the Horizon Worlds’ personal boundary setting on by default to protect preteens’ virtual space and prevent other users from intruding into their virtual space.
Previously, Horizon Worlds was only available in virtual reality. Now some of the experiences are available on the Meta Horizon mobile app. The app was recently redesigned to place more emphasis on Horizon Worlds.
Last month, Meta announced that preteens using parent-managed accounts would be able to call or chat with others in virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, but only with parental approval.
https://virtualrealitytimes.com/2024/09/02/meta-opening-up-horizon-worlds-to-preteens/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meta-opening-up-horizon-worlds-to-preteens
