{"id":629256,"date":"2023-04-14T19:49:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-15T00:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/14\/zuckerbergs-plan-to-open-metas-horizon-worlds-to-minors-is-facing-opposition\/"},"modified":"2023-04-14T19:49:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T00:49:35","slug":"zuckerbergs-plan-to-open-metas-horizon-worlds-to-minors-is-facing-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/14\/zuckerbergs-plan-to-open-metas-horizon-worlds-to-minors-is-facing-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuckerberg’s plan to open Meta’s Horizon Worlds to minors is facing opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Pressure is mounting on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to abandon plans to open Horizon Worlds<\/em>, the tech giant\u2019s flagship virtual reality platform, to children aged between 13 and 17.<\/p>\n

In a joint letter<\/a><\/span>, over 70 advocates for health, privacy, and children\u2019s rights led by Fairplay, the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) want the company to stop \u201cputting profits ahead of children\u2019s safety.\u201d <\/p>\n

The letter, signed by 36 organizations and 37 experts, argues that the metaverse is harmful to children and teens, citing a March research<\/a><\/span> from CCDH that revealed that minors spotted using Horizon Worlds <\/em>(which is currently only meant to allow users aged 18 and up) were routinely exposed to harassment and abuse\u2014including sexually explicit insults and racist, misogynistic, and homophobic slurs.<\/p>\n

The message accuses Zuckerberg of targeting kids and teens on Meta\u2019s platforms with little regard for their impact on young people\u2019s wellbeing. It also outlines the risk to minors\u2019 privacy\u00a0by collecting biomarkers without consent.<\/p>\n

One of the letter\u2019s signatory, Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, warned Meta to learn the lesson from Facebook and Instagram\u2019s toxic impact<\/a><\/span> on young people: \u201cMeta is making the same mistake with Horizon Worlds that it made with Facebook and Instagram. They have prioritized profit over safety in their design of the product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another signatory, Katharina Kopp, deputy director at the Center for Digital Democracy, echoed Ahmed\u2019s sentiment: \u201cBefore Meta considers opening its Horizon Worlds metaverse operation to teens, it should first commit to fully exploring the potential consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite recently taking steps to reduce<\/a><\/span> the company\u2019s commitment to the metaverse, Meta\u2019s head of global affairs Nick Clegg insisted that there is a big future in living in virtual worlds. \u201cWe\u2019re going to stick with it,\u201d he told reporters<\/a><\/span> from a virtual space in Meta\u2019s Horizon Workrooms last month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Faustine Ngila<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pressure is mounting on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to abandon plans to open Horizon Worlds, the tech giant\u2019s flagship virtual reality platform, to children aged between 13 and 17.In a joint letter, over 70 advocates for health, privacy, and children\u2019s rights led by Fairplay, the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), and the Center for Countering<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":629257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97758,4867],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-629256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-metas","8":"category-zuckerbergs"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}