The Quest 3, the most recent iteration of Meta Platforms’ mixed reality headset, was made available for purchase a little earlier this month. The Mark Zuckerberg-run company, which currently dominates the market for augmented reality and virtual reality devices, has decided to lower the minimum age requirement for players to sign up for a Meta Quest account from 13 years old to 10 years old. Beginning later this year, parents will be able to establish kid-friendly, parent-managed Meta accounts for their children who are between the ages of 10 and 12 using Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets thanks to the most recent update. According to Meta, users who fall within this age bracket will not be exposed to advertisements. In addition, we will suggest applications that have been evaluated and found to be appropriate for children.
Parents will be able to set up accounts for Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets for their children between the ages of 10 and 12 starting later this year, according to a blog post that the parent company of Facebook published on Friday. The company emphasises that preteens will need their parents’ consent to set up an account and download applications onto the virtual reality headsets if they are under the age of 13 years old.
Meta will make use of the ages of children in order to “provide age-appropriate experiences” across its app store. For example, age-appropriate applications will be suggested based on the children’s ages. Despite the fact that the minimum age requirement has been dropped, parents can rest assured that they will retain full control over the content of any programmes that their children download via the Meta Quest Platform. In addition to this, consumers, according to Meta’s argument, would have the ability to withdraw access to the app at any time.
According to Meta, who is reacting to the concerns raised by parents, children will be restricted in the amount of time they may use headphones, and parents will be allowed to schedule times in which they refrain from using electronic devices. Because there will be options to broadcast the VR experiences to a phone or TV screen, parents will have the ability to monitor what their preteen children are watching while they are wearing the headset.
In addition, parents may rest easy knowing that their children, between the ages of 10 and 12, will always have the default privacy settings activated on their Meta accounts. If this function were turned off, it would be impossible for anybody to follow preteens without either their permission or the approval of their parents. Similarly, the active status of users in this age range as well as their most recent app use are hidden from others by default, unless the user’s parent decides to make this information public. Additionally, preteens won’t have access to the options to change the default privacy and security settings.
Participants within this age group will not be exposed to any advertisements. The company gives parents the choice to either allow or disallow the use of their child’s information in order to improve the services and products it provides. In addition, Meta said that parents would have the ability to delete their child’s account along with all of the user information that was linked to it.
According to Meta, it is working with the developer community to increase the number of games and apps that are suitable for users of this demographic that are accessible on the Meta Quest Platform. The Horizon Worlds social virtual reality programme is now available to users who are above the age of 13 and who are located in the United States of America or Canada. In order to log in, individuals in Europe need to be at least 18 years old.
