Fairplay statement on Meta’s expansion of Horizon Worlds to teen users

Today, Meta announced that it was officially opening Horizon Worlds, its flagship virtual reality platform, to teens. Meta’s announcement comes after a wave of criticism from experts and advocates, including research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) that demonstrated that minors who had already evaded the platform’s age gate were routinely exposed to harassment and abuse—including sexually explicit insults and racist, misogynistic, and homophobic harassment—and other bigoted and offensive content. On March 1, Senators Markey and Blumenthal called on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to halt plans to open Horizon Worlds, citing the company’s poor track record of protecting young people on their platforms. And just last Friday, a coalition of 76 advocates and experts led by Fairplay, Center for Digital Democracy, and CCDH, sent a letter to Zuckerberg asking that Meta not open Horizon Worlds to teens without research showing the impacts of the metaverse on teens and robust measures to mitigate the risks of abuse on the platform.

The following can be attributed to Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin:

“I am appalled, and sadly, unsurprised that Meta is rushing to ensnare teens in its Horizon Worlds product despite overwhelming evidence that the platform isn’t safe. Teenagers’ safety should not be the price of Mark Zuckerberg’s failing multibillion dollar investment in VR. Clearly, Meta has no interest in listening to anyone who believes children’s wellbeing is more important than the company’s bottom line. Meta’s latest move shows how urgent it is for Congress to pass legislation that protects children’s safety and privacy online.”