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US Senators Ask Meta to ‘Halt’ its ‘Horizon Worlds’ Rollout for Teens to Access, Citing Safety Concerns

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/...orizon-worlds-rollout-teens-access-citing.htm
The plans to allow teenagers to access the "Horizon Worlds" virtual world is coming soon for all, but it is now facing two Senators pleading to Meta against this expanded access to younger age groups. The two US Senators, Richard Blumenthal, and Edward Mackey cited their concerns on Meta's eligibility for teenagers, mentioning their safety and well-being.

Since its beta availability in the market, Meta set up an age wall for access to it virtual world for those who are of legal age only, but there are reported plans for its expansion for teenagers to access.

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Mackey penned a letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg which details their sentiments against "Horizon Worlds" upcoming availability to teenagers. Their joint statement both centers on stopping this rollout for teenagers effective immediately, citing the previous shortcomings of the company for teens' online safety.

The Senators centered on the controversies behind other Meta apps including Facebook and Instagram which have issues concerning adolescent and teen usage that affected their mental health, or are in danger as strangers may freely contact them.

Meta previously updated Instagram and Facebook regarding these problems, as per its blog posts in the past.

When is Meta Opening 'Horizon Worlds' Access to Teens?​

There are no confirmations as to when Meta would bring teenagers aged 13 to 17 to access "Horizon Worlds," as the company has no official announcements of when it would arrive.

According to CNET, the eligibility for teenagers to access the virtual world may arrive this month.

Meta and its 'Horizon Worlds,' Metaverse​

Meta is gunning strong for its development of the metaverse and the company aims to deliver a new virtual world for the public to enjoy, also using its Quest equipment in the process. "Horizon Worlds" is Meta's first take on a social virtual world that offers numerous experiences and connections, one which opened its public access last December 2021.

Since then, people enjoyed the gateway to the metaverse in connecting with friends, families, and people they met online from this experience from Meta.

There was also a specific security update added before, and it is enabling one's Safety Bubble to avoid getting groped or harassed in the virtual world.

There was a previous thread that they were lowering the age so they can get more users, likely out of desperation and to pad the numbers, but Congress is concerned that like on their other platformers, minors will run into trouble and want him to stop the rollout of removing the age barrier for teens 13 to 17. The safety bubble chamber feature will not be enough.

Of course this may be pointless since as per the recent leak, Zucker is about to give up on VR metaverse, and will place Horizon Worlds on the web as well, accessible from phones, tablets and PC's, so those teens, and younger children, and are going to end up getting into Horizon Worlds anyway, which will cause a PR disaster for Zucker once again.

The likely reason imo, he's not killing and/or replacing Horizon Worlds is that apparently they spend a lot of money on it, supposedly millions, and probably want to try and do something with it to not add to their losses. In one year VR alone (2022) cost Facebook almost $14 billion in losses, so who knows for the last 4-5 years.

I expect more negative attention now that the senators are coming after Horizon Worlds too. Then again I'm not sure of Horizon will even attract any Teens when they see the quality,

meta-horizon-worlds.jpeg


Maybe the senators have nothing to worry about after all. Ugh.
 
Note that this is only happening because Facebook was TRYING to make Horizon World a G-rated gaming area.

Places like VRChat are basically saying "this is 18+ only and if you are too young then it is your own fault for lying about your age". As such there is no thinking about the children.
 

JonSnowball

Member
Even US Senators know the only people despicable enough to engage in the soulless Metaverse are those dastardly villains known as pedophiles. Protect our kids, senators.
 
They're right. Why are people in this thread suddenly defending Meta?
Nobody is defending meta, but some of us are defending the right for parents to decide what media their kids consume, and the government should have absolutely no say in it unless that content is truly illegal (Such as Child Porn).

What's more surprising is people caping for the federal government.
 
Simping for big tech. For real: targeting the most vulnerable aka teens has been FB modus from the very start. You always prey at the weakest. That’s all part of Zuck’s plan.
Really? Because Meta is literally THE PLACE for Boomers. Teens aren't touching facebook. They are in a far more dangerous space than that, they are on TikTok, a literal CCP tool.
 

Jinzo Prime

Member
Really? Because Meta is literally THE PLACE for Boomers. Teens aren't touching facebook. They are in a far more dangerous space than that, they are on TikTok, a literal CCP tool.
Yeah, why aren't they going after TicTok? We know that its harvesting data for a hostile government, some state governments are banning the app on state employees phones, but no one but the last President dared to try to slow down TicToks spread and popularity. How very strange.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Yeah, why aren't they going after TicTok? We know that its harvesting data for a hostile government, some state governments are banning the app on state employees phones, but no one but the last President dared to try to slow down TicToks spread and popularity. How very strange.
Who knows.

TikTok is an accepted brand and company. NHL teams have TikTok logos on their helmets. The links I found on google are for the past 1-2 years, but it still holds true now as I saw their logo on helmets this week.

 
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Jinzo Prime

Member
Who knows.

TikTok is an accepted brand and company. NHL teams have TikTok logos on their helmets. The links I found on google are for the past 1-2 years, but it still holds true now as I saw their logo on helmets this week.

Hell, I get ads for them every time I go on YouTube. I know Meta/Facebook is terrible and needs to be curtailed, but when we allow companies like TikTok to do as they please, it really weakens the governments arguments and ability to go after Facebook or Twitter or Google. It looks hypocritical.
 

Bridges

Member
Anybody who has actually used Horizon Worlds knows that over 90% of the playerbase is less than 10 years old.

VR is already filled with children who's parents don't give a single shit about what they get into.
 
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