Zuckerberg Expands VR Horizon Worlds to Teens, Despite Senators' Objections
In the face of sagging(Opens in a new window) interest in the metaverse, Mark Zuckerberg is inviting teenagers in North America to try out Meta's Horizon Worlds VR app, which was previously available only to adults.
Horizon Worlds is essentially designed to be a virtual universe, where people can interact and play games with each other through custom avatars. But it's drawn scrutiny from lawmakers who have called on Zuckerberg not to expand the VR app to teenagers.
Sens. Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal are worried the app will expose underage users to potential bullying, stalking, sexual content, and other harms—all issues that already plague Meta’s other apps, including Facebook and Instagram.
In response, Meta says it’s preparing to expand Horizon Worlds to the 13 and 17 age group with “a robust set of age-appropriate protections and safety defaults” in place. “We’re rolling out to teens slowly, so that we can carefully examine usage and are taking a phased approach before expanding more broadly,” the company added in the announcement(Opens in a new window).
The safety measures include disabling “the active status” indicator on a teen’s account while hiding their virtual location to other users. Instead, it’ll be up to a teen user to determine who else can view their status indicator and location in Horizon Worlds.
In another example, Meta said: “Teens’ profiles are automatically set to private, so they’re able to approve or decline anyone who requests to follow them.”
The company also created a rather bizarre, but perhaps innovative way, to stifle harassment. Meta is preparing an audio mode that “transforms the voices of people a teen doesn’t know into quiet, friendly sounds, giving teens more control over
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