Democratic Senators Push Against Meta’s Idea of Bringing the Metaverse to Teens – Two Democratic senators have issued a letter requesting that Meta abandon its newly disclosed plan to make its metaverse accessible to teens. Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal, senators from Massachusetts and Connecticut, respectively, are opposed to the idea of opening Horizon Worlds, Meta’s flagship metaverse application, to teens aged 13 and older, citing a variety of factors that could put them in danger through the interactions available in this virtual world.
The letter distinguishes between standard virtual reality experiences and Horizon Worlds, explaining that “the cumulative set of immersive virtual reality experiences a teenager would confront on the socially-driven Horizon Worlds are distinct from their use of a virtual reality headset to, for example, play a specific single-player game. Inviting young teens into this environment, therefore, poses serious risks.”
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Markey and Blumenthal call for a halt to the initiative to protect the health and privacy of these young users in the metaverse, citing the company’s past errors involving this group. On February 7, the Wall Street Journal reported on Meta’s ambition to include teens in their metaverse.
According to an internal memo received by the news organization, the company’s new plan includes making the Horizon Worlds experience available to teens above the age of 13. This would be a shift from the app’s present policy, which only permits users over the age of 18 to traverse the virtual world.
According to WSJ, Meta’s memo reinforces the need of pushing these services to young users in order to keep growing. Horizon Worlds VP Gabriel Aul reportedly stated: “Today our competitors are doing a much better job meeting the unique needs of these cohorts. For Horizon to succeed we need to ensure that we serve this cohort first and foremost.”
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Horizon Worlds had significant growth in its early phases, tenfolding its user base shortly after its introduction in December 2021, but even Meta’s own workers have criticized the app for its problematic status. Vishal Shah, vice president of Metaverse, stated in October that the app’s flaws hindered the user experience and that even business staff spent little time using it.
