Meta is going to let preteens use Horizon Worlds

Meta is opening up Horizon Worlds, its 3D social platform, to users between the ages of 10 and 12, the company announced on Wednesday. As part of the rollout, parents will have a significant amount of control over what experiences their preteens can access, and experiences will get age ratings to help parents determine which ones are appropriate for their children.

For a preteen to use Horizon Worlds, they'll have to have a parent-managed Meta account and request access to Horizon Worlds itself. Once a parent has approved that, preteens can request access to individual experiences, or parents can mark a setting that lets their preteen jump into all experiences that fall within a certain age rating. (Meta will rate experiences as appropriate for ages 10 and up, ages 13 and up, and ages 18 and up.)

Meta has a few other protections in place for preteens, too. Voice chat is disabled for Meta accounts managed by parents, though parents can allow voice chat with certain contacts. Preteens will be shown as offline by default unless a parent changes that. And Horizon Worlds' personal boundary setting will be on for accounts managed by parents to prevent other users from getting too close in virtual space.

Horizon Worlds used to only be available in VR, but some experiences are now accessible from the Meta Horizon mobile app, too. Meta recently redesigned the app to put a bigger focus on Horizon Worlds.

Last month, Meta also announced that preteens with parent-managed accounts would, with parental approval, be able to chat or call with others in mixed reality and virtual reality experiences.