• by Colin Kirkland , April 2, 2024

On Tuesday Meta announced that it will be asking everyone who has an account on Quest 2 and 3 virtual reality headsets to re-enter their birthdates. The tech giant says this new mandate has been put in place to help ensure that Quest users have “access to age-appropriate tools, content and protections.”

“Understanding the ages of people on Meta Quest helps both us and developers provide the right experience, settings, and protections for teens and preteens,” the company added in its blog post, laying out specific requirements for various age groups.

For example, after entering their age, users who are age 18 and older will be able to choose if they want a private or public profile, and whether or not they want their followers to see their active status while they play.

Users between the ages of 13 and 17 will be given a private account automatically, along with hidden activity and access to parental supervision tools, which Meta says make it easier for parents and guardians to customize their teens' experience on the platform.

Preteens (users between the ages of 10 and 12) will receive “parent-managed accounts,” which require their parents’ approval in order to set up. These profiles default to private and give parents control over settings and whether their preteen can download or use an app. Parents can also block access to specific apps at any time, the company says.

Meta is enforcing a 30-day window for users to confirm their age.

Accounts that fail to confirm the user's age will be temporarily blocked until a birthdate is provided. In addition, users who are caught lying about their age or accidentally enter the wrong birthdate will have to verify with an ID or credit card.

To help developers create age-appropriate content for its virtual-reality gaming platform, Meta has been investing in its own user age group API, which allows developers to categorize their apps by the age groups described above. Meta says this allows the company to better communicate with developers about who should be eligible to engage in a specific app.

These changes affirm what Mark Zuckerberg proposed at a congressional online safety hearing in January.

The Meta CEO wants to see mobile app store operators like Apple and Google asking consumers to verify their ages when setting up their account, making it easier to enforce which apps they can download.