In early March, two Senate Democrats sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking him to halt Facebook’s plans to offer a metaverse to teenagers.
This petition is now supported by dozens of advocacy organizations and child safety experts. All this stems from the recent changes by Meta that has been planning to renew the platform of the application Horizon Worldsmodifying the target age group.
Now teenagers from 13 to 17 years old could also access to this virtual reality space in which Meta has made a million-dollar investment. At the moment, people with a minimum of 18 years of age can access the content of the apps but with this new update – which is expected soon – the entry age is lowered.
“Meta should await further peer-reviewed research on the potential risks of the metaverse to make sure children and adolescents are safe”the groups wrote, led by online security groups including fairplaythe Center to Counter Digital Hate, Common Sense Media and others.
Meta plans the entry of minors into the metaverse
The big basic problem of this application has been the retention rate. In January, Meta said that it is 11%which means that only 1 in 9 players returned to play. Goal It has the objective of achieving a retention rate of 20% and it seems that for this purpose it will allow the entry of minors.
However, and as reported by Bloombergthe researchers of Common Sense Media they witnessed 19 episodes of abuse directed at minors by adults, including sexual harassment, during 100 visits to the most popular worlds within Horizon Worlds.
“If Meta were to open the doors of these worlds to minors instead of stopping to protect them, it would demonstrate, once again, that their company is unreliable when it comes to safeguarding the best interests of youth,” they wrote.
Meta’s goal is to increase the monthly user base to 150,000 by the end of 2023, but whistleblowers are not willing to compromise the security of the youngest in order to increase their numbers.
