Meta is lowering the minimum age for users to access and engage with Quest content on the company’s popular VR headsets. In a blog post outlined on the company’s website, Meta says it’s going to be launching new parent-managed accounts for the Meta Quest platform.
These new parent-managed accounts would be set up by parents for children between the ages of 10 and 12. The minimum age for Meta Quest accounts was previously 13. According to the blog post, these changes will be pushed out later this year. Parent-managed accounts will also be supported on both Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets.
For children under the age of 13, use of the hardware will require a parent’s approval. This will allow parents to manage the apps that their kids engage with, Meta says.
The new minimum age will allow Meta to recommend appropriate Quest apps
Meta’s new minimum age limit will be a multifaceted change for families. Parents with kids under the age of the 13 can share their kid’s age with Meta during the account creation process.
In doing so, Meta says this can help the company provide age-appropriate experiences. “When parents share their preteen’s age with us, we’ll use this information to provide age-appropriate experiences across our app store. For example, we’ll only recommend age-appropriate apps.”
The new changes are a step towards helping parents ensure kids aren’t consuming content they don’t want them to. With parent-managed accounts, parents have the final say. But by sharing the age, kids within the minimum age range shouldn’t end up seeing app content that isn’t appropriate for them in the first place.
Providing parents with another barrier between their kids and that kind of content. Meta says these changes will allow families more ways to use and enjoy Meta Quest.
Parents can block access at any time
In addition to the approval for account creation, Meta says parents also have control over app access. With the ability to block access to content at any time on a parent-managed account.
There will be parental controls for setting time limits for usage too. With the ability to lay out set schedules for access time. In addition, the controls will include a VR casting feature that lets parents see what their kids are seeing on the headset. This feature would allow parents to cast the content to a phone or TV screen.