Meta is now letting teenagers into its Horizon Worlds Quest VR experience

The end is nigh! Enjoy your Horizon Worlds experience while it lasts!

Back in February, a report claimed that Meta, the company behind the Quest headset, was planning to open up Horizon Worlds, its user-generated virtual reality social app, to teenagers. According to that report, users 13 to 17 would begin to gain access to the app, which has, up until this point, technically been limited to adult users.

At the time, Meta did not deny the report but would not confirm when or if it would allow teenagers into the Horizon Worlds experience. Well, it seems that the company is okay with confirming that today. In a blog post, the company announced that it is officially opening up Horizon Worlds to teens. According to the announcement, the app will become available to users between 13 and 17 in the United States and Canada “in the coming weeks.”

The company says that there will be a number of measures it will take to ensure that teenagers are safe while in Horizon Worlds, including more targeted privacy settings, hiding a teen’s status by default, world and event content ratings, garbling their voice by default, and limiting interactions between teens and adults they do not know.

The company is also giving more control to partners so they can manage the experience for their teenagers in the app:

• See, adjust, and lock safety features like voice mode and personal boundary for their teen.
• See who their teen follows and who follows their teen.
• See which apps their teen has used and how much time they’ve spent in Meta Quest and Worlds in the past seven days.
• Give permission to allow or block their teen from using apps, including Worlds.
• Access resources about our available safety features.

Today’s announcement comes as we get closer to the company revealing the Meta Quest 3, its next-generation consumer-focused VR headset.

The end is nigh! Enjoy your Horizon Worlds experience while it lasts!

Back in February, a report claimed that Meta, the company behind the Quest headset, was planning to open up Horizon Worlds, its user-generated virtual reality social app, to teenagers. According to that report, users 13 to 17 would begin to gain access to the app, which has, up until this point, technically been limited to adult users.

At the time, Meta did not deny the report but would not confirm when or if it would allow teenagers into the Horizon Worlds experience. Well, it seems that the company is okay with confirming that today. In a blog post, the company announced that it is officially opening up Horizon Worlds to teens. According to the announcement, the app will become available to users between 13 and 17 in the United States and Canada “in the coming weeks.”

The company says that there will be a number of measures it will take to ensure that teenagers are safe while in Horizon Worlds, including more targeted privacy settings, hiding a teen’s status by default, world and event content ratings, garbling their voice by default, and limiting interactions between teens and adults they do not know.

The company is also giving more control to partners so they can manage the experience for their teenagers in the app:

• See, adjust, and lock safety features like voice mode and personal boundary for their teen.
• See who their teen follows and who follows their teen.
• See which apps their teen has used and how much time they’ve spent in Meta Quest and Worlds in the past seven days.
• Give permission to allow or block their teen from using apps, including Worlds.
• Access resources about our available safety features.

Today’s announcement comes as we get closer to the company revealing the Meta Quest 3, its next-generation consumer-focused VR headset.