As a virtual world, Horizon isn’t yet as popular as stalwarts Roblox or Fortnite, for example (it probably never will be). But it has started to seem more active, sometimes even crowded. People dressed up in their avatars wander around the rooms, compete in games, pretend to work at fast food restaurants and, yes, yell at each other quite a bit. The platform has come a long way, even if its community, and therefore its culture, is now dominated by a bunch of rowdy tweens.
There are several reasons why kids have flocked to Horizon Worlds. Part of it is due to the change in age restrictions. In April 2023, Meta opened Horizon Worlds to users ages 13 and older in the United States and Canada. In June 2024, it expanded access for ages 13 and up to all countries where Quest hearing aids are sold. In August 2024, it lowered the age to 10 for American and Canadian tweens. Horizon Worlds is also available on mobile and desktop browsers, so many rooms are not VR-exclusive. Regardless of how they are connecting, children flood the doors alike.
Tanner Higgin, a researcher at the non-profit educational organization WestEd, specializing in video games and educational technology, maintains that Meta’s decision to lower the access age makes sense for a platform that increasingly has more young users. Furthermore, the medium itself seems especially attractive to children.
“VR fits the surreal and crazy nature of children’s media,” Higgin observes. “Children have a much higher tolerance for the strange, cacophonous mess that VR can be that almost fits their sensibilities in a way that it doesn’t with adults.”
Leo Gebbie, an analyst at CCS Insights who covers augmented and virtual reality, says the increasing affordability of hardware could also be helping. The Meta Quest 3S, Meta’s new affordable virtual reality glasses, have the potential to attract more children to the medium. The device only costs $300, which is probably the cheapest way to get started in VR right now. This low price is likely to attract many newcomers to VR, including parents with young children who until now didn’t feel like they could justify the cost of entry into VR.
“In the specific case of the Quest headphones, I think they have reflected the process of adoption and use of devices like the Nintendo Wii,” says Gebbie. “That kind of affordable device that you buy as a family and give to your children.”
Horizon still has adult fans, and in their eyes, children are not okay. On Reddit you can find thread after thread of people complaining about kids ruining the vibes of virtual spaces like VR chat, or hear horror stories about kids getting into compromising situations, exposed to bullying or being bullied. bullying from other children or, more worryingly, from adults.
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