New York CNN –
Facebook parent Meta plans to lower the minimum age for its virtual reality headsets from 13 to 10, despite pressure from lawmakers not to market its VR services to younger users.
Beginning later this year, parents will be able to set up accounts for children ages 10 and older on the Quest 2 and Quest 3 meta headsets, the company said in a blog post on Friday.
According to the company, teens must get parental consent to set up an account and download apps to the device. Meta said it will also use children’s ages to “deliver age-appropriate experiences,” such as recommending appropriate apps.
“There is a wide range of engaging and educational apps, games and more on our platform, most of which are suitable for children aged 10+,” Meta said in the post.
The company’s push to lower the minimum age comes at a time when Meta and other social media companies are facing increasing criticism for their impact on young users, including their potential to harm teen mental health harm or mislead them with harmful content.
Parents and legislators have also specifically raised the alarm about the use of VR — and the future version of the internet that Meta calls the “metaverse” — by teens and children.
Earlier this year, two Democratic senators called on Meta to suspend a plan to offer Horizon Worlds, the company’s flagship VR app, to teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 on the grounds that the technology could benefit the physical and mental health of young people harm users. Lawmakers Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal called Meta’s plan “unacceptable” in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg given the company’s “failures to protect children and youth.”
But in April, Meta went ahead with its plan to allow teens ages 13 and older in the US and Canada to use Horizon Worlds, prompting additional outcry from lawmakers and civil society groups.
Parents told CNN last year of cases where they found their children were viewing violent and disturbing content in VR and were struggling to find ways to keep their children safe.
Meta tries to address some of the parents’ concerns.
In his Friday blog post, Meta said parents will be able to set time limits and enforce breaks for their kids when using the headsets. Users under the age of 13 will have their accounts set to private and their active status will be hidden in apps by default unless parents choose to change these settings. Meta also allows content to be cast from its VR headsets to a TV or phone screen, allowing parents to see what their kids are watching.
Meta said it would not serve ads to users in this age group and that parents could decide whether their children’s data could be used to improve the company’s services. Meta added on Friday that Horizon Worlds will remain limited to users ages 13+ in the US and Canada (and ages 18+ in Europe) when later this year it will allow teens to create parent-managed accounts on the headsets.
Meta’s headset and Horizon Worlds represent Zuckerberg’s vision of a next-generation internet where users can interact with each other in virtual spaces that mimic real life. The company has struggled to attract a mainstream audience to these products.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect Meta’s plan to continue restricting Horizon Worlds to users 13 and older.