Zuckerberg’s Meta Is ‘Leading Edge in Making Human Beings Into Virtual Zeros,’ Tech Expert Says

A group of nearly 70 “top children’s rights advocates and those promoting online privacy” last month told Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to stop targeting children and teens in its marketing scheme for the company’s virtual reality (VR) metaverse platform, “Horizon Worlds.”

The advocates — including Parents Television and Media Council and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy — said in a letter to Zuckerberg:

“The undersigned — a total of 36 organizations and 37 individual experts on young people’s development — write to urge you to immediately cancel plans to lure users aged 13 to 17 to Horizon Worlds, and to prohibit minors from using the platform until Meta can demonstrate that engaging in such a continually evolving virtual reality (VR) environment is safe for their wellbeing.”

Citing the “well-documented negative impacts of 2D social media” on young people, the advocates said Meta “must wait for more peer-reviewed research” on the potential risks of the metaverse to ensure children’s and teens’ safety.