Meta lowers VR age to 10

我们将会在未来看到更多的青少年进入元宇宙。 上周，Meta宣布推出了新的家长管理的Meta账户，允许父母和监护人更好地管理孩子在Meta Quest 2and Meta Quest 3头戴设备上的虚拟现实活动。

The company also announced that it's lowering the recommended age for VR users from 13 to 10, giving teens official access to the Metaverse. Parents and guardians can now manage their family's accounts from a single device. Account managers can control which apps are downloaded from the Meta Quest store. Once an account is set up, Meta will only recommend games and apps to teenage users that are appropriate for their age.

Image source: Meta

Parents and guardians can block specific content at any time and schedule breaks for kids on the device, giving them more control over how much time teens spend in virtual reality. By default, teen accounts will be set to private. This means parents need to approve who is allowed to keep an eye on their children.

According to Meta, this age group does not receive ads. “On our platform, there are tons of fun and educational apps, games, etc., most of which are Entertainment Software Rating Council(ESRB) and International Age Rating Coalition(IARC) rated for ages 10 and up. said Meta in its official blog post.

Image source: Meta

"Parents and their teens can benefit from the interactive experience of virtually visiting faraway places to witnessing important historical moments in person," the company added. “Families can explore the depths of the ocean, visit Machu Picchu, visit the International Space Station, orbit Jupiter, or just play their favorite games. We will be working closely with the developer community in the coming months to bring this age group More apps and games for them."

In short, we may see more children entering the Metaverse in the near future. However, Meta's own social VR metaverse, Horizon Worlds, remains a 13+ app in the US and Canada, and an 18+ app in Europe. For more information on the new parent-managed Meta account for families, please consult Meta'sOfficial Blog Post.