Meta Lowers Minimum Age For Quest Headset
Tech major Meta Platforms on Friday said it would be lowering the minimum age for Quest account users from 13 years to 10 years old.
The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company framed the change coming later this year, labeling it as a family-friendly move for more people to explore artificial realms through the metaverse.
The move to attract the preteens into a virtual world of digital avatars and other technological fabrications came following weeks after US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy asked tech companies and lawmakers to take steps to protect children’s social media exposure.
The surgeon general stressed that social media causes harmful mental and emotional effects among kids.
Both Facebook and Instagram are known to engage younger minds via their platforms, undercutting their real-life ties with friends and families while exposing them to the risk of online bullying and sexual abuse.
Meanwhile, Meta says that even though the age limit is lowered parents will have control over their children’s accounts for the Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets and assured that preteen access will be limited to “age-appropriate” applications deploying virtual reality (VR).
The company underlined that preteens won’t be able to have a Quest account without explicit approval from their parents and all applications used on the platform will require parental consent.
Meta even recommended that the younger age users will be allowed a two-hour daily time limit on the headset. Other safeguards include setting all preteen accounts to a default private setting and a pledge to restrict kids’ accounts from ads that generate most of Meta’s revenue.
It officially announced the move as ‘responsible innovation principles' and its commitment to building safe, positive experiences for young people at the forefront.
The company also claimed of providing parents with extensive guidance when assessing whether they should allow a 10 to 12-year-old to use a virtual reality headset.
