{"id":47862,"date":"2023-04-14T07:33:23","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T11:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=47862"},"modified":"2023-04-14T07:33:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T11:33:26","slug":"groups-urge-meta-to-ban-minors-from-the-metaverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/groups-urge-meta-to-ban-minors-from-the-metaverse\/","title":{"rendered":"Groups urge Meta to ban minors from the Metaverse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Advocacy and safety organizations have sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg's imploring him to abandon plans by social media giant Meta <\/a>to allow minors into the metaverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Groups
Groups urge Meta to ban minors from the Metaverse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Experts in online safety sent a letter to the CEO of Meta on April 14, urging the company to abandon its plans to invite teens and young adults to join its Horizon Worlds Metaverse app. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a Bloomberg report, the letter was endorsed by prominent safety organizations, including Airplay, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Common Sense Media, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The activists argued that Meta must first evaluate the potential risks associated with permitting minors access to the metaverse, as they are likely to be subjected to harassment and privacy violations on its virtual reality app<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Meta must wait for additional peer-reviewed research on the potential risks of the metaverse to ensure the safety of children and adolescents,” advocates wrote in a letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement referred to a March report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a> which found that adults were already harassing users under 18 on the application. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During 100 visits to the most popular worlds within Horizon Universe, the researchers observed 19 instances of abuse directed at juveniles by adults, including sexual harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The safety experts argued that Meta should construct a new path with its metaverse project to protect young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cShould Meta throw open the doors of these worlds to minors rather than pause to protect them, you would, yet again, demonstrate your company to be untrustworthy when it comes to safeguarding young people\u2019s best interests.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As previously reported, Meta planned to make Horizon Worlds accessible to users aged 13 to 17 in February. Horizon Worlds was opened to users aged 18 and older in 2021, but the company has struggled to retain users on the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Osborne, a representative for Meta, told Bloomberg that the company has no plans to abandon its plans for miners in the metaverse but is preparing to take additional precautions to protect such users from any metaverse-related violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Before we make Horizon Worlds accessible to teenagers, we will have additional safeguards and tools in place to help provide age-appropriate experiences for them,” Osborne said, adding:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cQuest headsets <\/a>are for people 13+ and we encourage parents and caretakers to use our parental supervision tools, including managing access to apps, to help ensure safe experiences.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The most recent effort to protect juveniles in virtual reality is not the first time Meta has been urged to reconsider its plans for allowing children to enter the metaverse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an early March letter, Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal demanded that Meta abandon its intentions to expand access to the app for adolescents aged 13 to 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Advocacy and safety organizations have sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg’s imploring him to abandon plans by social media giant Meta to allow minors into the metaverse. Experts in online safety sent a letter to the CEO of Meta on April 14, urging the company to abandon its plans to invite teens and young adults […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5794],"tags":[5751,8149,4617,14168],"class_list":["post-47862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metaverse-news","tag-mark-zukerberg","tag-meta-2","tag-metaverse","tag-minors"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/image-102.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}