Horizon Worlds, the virtual reality environment developed by Meta (parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) is adding policies to regulate content intended for people over 18 years of age, an indication that these immersive worlds will offer content aimed exclusively at an adult audience.
Meta already has its own user account, unlinked from the Facebook user account, where it is mandatory to indicate the date of birth
These adult content policies have been noted in an email addressed to the creators, pointing out the need to show whether such content is appropriate for audiences of all ages or only for adult audiences over 18 years of age. Content creators have one month to proceed to establish said indication, and if they do not do so, their content will be marked by default as intended for people over 18 years of age.
Creators can change this ranking at any time from the Builder Mode dashboard thanks to a newly added new tab. Here are some examples provided by Meta of what they consider to be adult content:
-Sexually suggestive contentsuch as light nudity or depictions of people in suggestive positions, as well as settings focused on highly suggestive activities.
-Words related to promotion of marijuana, alcohol, tobacco and other activities prohibited to minors, such as gambling.
-intense or excessive use of violence in fictional content, which includes blood and viscera, that may shock or annoy users.
With these indications present, content such as:
-Sexually explicit content or provocative including nudity, depiction of people in explicit positions, or content and words that are sexually provocative or implied.
-Content that represents or promotes the use of drugs illegal drugs or the abuse of drugs only obtainable by prescription.
-Content that promotes criminal activities or dangerous.
-Content that shows real intense violenceincluding blood and viscera.
-Content where you try to buy, sell or traffic with regulated goods in real life such as firearms, bladed weapons, alcohol and tobacco.
These changes come after Meta has unlinked Facebook accounts from the use of its Quest VR virtual reality devices, replacing them with Meta’s own accounts that include the obligation to indicate name and date of birth in order to verify if the user is or not of legal age.
Regardless, Meta warns Quest users that they must be at least 13 years of age, while the recently introduced parental supervision ability for the use of these virtual reality devices by adolescents.
