Meta is now allowing preteens aged 10 to 12 to explore its virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds, under the supervision of parent-managed accounts, with specific restrictions to ensure their safety.
The tech giant announced that parents will soon have the ability to approve age-appropriate VR worlds for their children, such as “The Space Station,” “The Aquarium,” and the “Spy School” racing game. Preteens can request access to specific worlds, or parents can choose from a list of options to grant permission.
To protect young users, Meta has introduced a new rating system categorizing VR worlds as 10+, 13+, or 18+. This system allows parents to approve all 10+ rated worlds at once, making 18+ worlds invisible to preteens. Additional safety measures include disabling follower suggestions and setting preteens’ status to “offline” by default unless manually changed by parents.
Meta has also permanently activated the “Personal Boundary” feature, which creates a two-foot virtual bubble around avatars to prevent others from coming too close.
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This update follows Meta’s recent addition of features allowing parents to approve individual contacts for their children in VR and requiring users of Meta Quest 2 or 3 headsets to re-enter their birthdate before use. Parent-managed accounts for preteens have been available since June 2023.
Despite these measures, some parents remain skeptical about Meta’s ability to protect younger users, given past concerns about the company’s handling of safety on its platforms.
