In a letter addressed to the CEO of the Californian group, two senators call on him not to make the Horizon Worlds platform accessible to young people aged 13 to 17.
While Meta plans to open the doors to its metaverse, Horizon Worlds, to teens as early as March, the company may be forced to scrap its plans. Two US Democratic senators, Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal, called on the company to end its project in a letter addressed to the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
“Meta’s plan to target young people with offers in the metaverse is particularly concerning in light of your consistent failures to protect young users. With a documented history of failures to protect children and adolescents, Meta has lost the trust of parents, paediatricians, policy makers and the public”wrote the senators.
According to Wall Street Journal, they notably mentioned the flaw in Messenger Kids which allowed children to chat with strangers, but also criticized the company for not having prevented the targeting of young people with advertisements for tobacco, alcohol and the disorders food. Both senators also cited Meta’s internal research that Instagram is harmful, especially to teenage girls. These revelations prompted the firm to put on hold its project for a version of the social network for children.
Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal further believe that the metaverse of Meta poses a threat to young people. Among the concerns raised is data collection with eye and face tracking. In this regard, a company spokesperson recalled that this system is only available with the Meta Quest Pro virtual reality headset and stated that protections have been put in place to avoid the type of“invasion of privacy” suggested in the letter. The senators are also concerned regarding the exposure of young people to abusive behavior such as harassment, threats of violence and sexual content.
Struggling to keep users in Horizon Worlds, Meta wants to open its platform to teenagers to increase the retention rate. A reason that is also criticized by the two politicians: “Any strategy to invite young users into a digital space plagued by potential harm should not be driven by a profit-maximizing goal”.
