US lawmaker behind crypto mining legislation urges Zuck not to offer metaverse to teenagers

Two United States senators person penned a missive asking Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to halt a program to let young adults to entree the firm’s metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds.

In a March 1 letter, Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal said that Meta’s reported program to “invite young users into a integer abstraction rife with imaginable harms” should not beryllium implemented if the strategy was driven by profit. According to the 2 lawmakers, allowing teenagers betwixt 13 and 17 years aged entree to the virtual situation posed “serious risks”, citing privateness concerns, oculus strain, and online bullying.

“Meta’s program to people young radical with offerings successful the metaverse is peculiarly concerning successful airy of your accordant failures to support young users,” said Markey and Blumenthal to Zuckerberg. “With a documented way grounds of nonaccomplishment to support children and teens, Meta has mislaid parents’, pediatricians’, policymakers’, and the public’s trust.”

Just similar the net today, the metaverse volition person some nationalist venues arsenic good arsenic spaces for much backstage conversations. And you’ll beryllium capable to take however you privation to participate. pic.twitter.com/JoGjrHmnlc

— Meta (@Meta) January 25, 2022

The 2 senators cited reports of Instagram being down galore teenagers experiencing suicidal thoughts, arsenic good arsenic the firm’s nonaccomplishment to halt ads for “tobacco, alcohol, and eating upset content” targeted astatine young adults:

“As our constituents turn progressively acrophobic astir the effects of online platforms and societal media apps connected teens’ well-being, your plans to imminently propulsion these young radical into an under-researched, perchance unsafe virtual realm with consequences for their carnal and intelligence wellness is unacceptable.”

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Markey, a inferior legislator representing Massachusetts, has antecedently signed connected to legislation targeting the biology interaction of crypto mining and called connected mining firms to reply questions regarding information collection. Blumenthal was down a measure successful the past league of the U.S. Congress aimed astatine allowing third-party applications and app stores connected devices released from large tech firms.