During the recent congressional hearing on online safety, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a case for mobile app store providers like Apple and Google to take on the responsibility of implementing parental controls for social media platforms. Now, it seems that Meta is putting its ideas into action through its Quest VR store, showcasing its approach to online age verification for devices with app stores.
As Meta announced today, users of the Quest 2 and 3 are now being prompted to verify their age by re-entering their birthdays. This will allow Meta to provide the appropriate experience, settings, and protections for teenagers and preteens. For instance, those aged 13 to 17 will have their profiles automatically set to private, and parents can use parental supervision tools to customize their teens’ experiences. Meanwhile, parents of preteens aged 10 to 12 are required to set up an account and can control which apps their child can download.
There is a 30-day window for users to confirm their age. Failure to do so within this time frame will result in a temporary block on their account until they provide their birthdate. However, in an effort to prevent users from lying about their age, Meta will require those who enter an incorrect birthdate to verify their identity with an ID or credit card.
Last year, Meta informed developers that by March 2024, they will be required to specify the intended age group for their app–preteens, teens, or adults. Furthermore, Meta has also launched its user age group APIs, which became available last month. These APIs enable developers to report to Meta if a user is too young for their app.
In 2022, Meta first introduced parental supervision tools for its VR headset. And in 2023, the company released parent-managed accounts for preteens.
