Two Democratic senators in the United States are pleading with META to abandon its alleged idea that it would allow teenagers to use its Horizon Worlds. The metaverse programReports CNET.
Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Edward Markey of Massachusetts raised concerns about Meta’s history with teen safety on other applications, including Instagram and its kid-friendly version of Facebook Messenger, in a letter published Thursday. expressed.
“In light of your company’s record of failing to protect children and adolescents and mounting evidence of risks to young consumers at Metaverse, we urge you to consider this plan,” the senators said in a statement. should be stopped immediately.” CNET Reports
Users of Horizon Worlds with the help of virtual reality headsets can createChat, and play games. It has been discovered that harassment issues exist in the realms of virtual reality just as they do in other Internet spaces. This raises concerns about other crimes as well.
Blumenthal and Markey pointed to security flaws in other meta-programs, such as those that let children use Facebook’s Messenger Kids service to communicate with strangers. In addition, studies show that Instagram can have a negative impact on the mental health of young people. According to an internal meta-study, one in five teenagers claimed that using Instagram made them feel bad about themselves.
Although Metta says it is looking into the matter, it has not explicitly said it plans to provide access to Horizon Worlds to minors. According to reports, the change could happen this month.
“The Quest platform has always been designed for people ages 13+, so it makes sense that we would aim to introduce experiences for that audience at Horizon,” a Meta spokesperson said in an email. said in the mail. CNET.
The tech giant said young people are already spending a lot of time “in VR experiences on Quest,” which is why the company wants to make sure they have age-appropriate tools and protections “in Horizon Worlds.” To provide the best experience.”
According to reports last year, Horizon Worlds was drawing fewer visitors than Meta expected for short visits.