By The Meta Quest 3 headset ships later this year. | Image: Meta
Government scrutiny of how tech companies handle their underage users is continuing to heat up. A flood of bills in Congress on this topic seeks to strengthen the power of regulators and even ban kids under 13 from social media entirely.
Enter Meta, which is lowering the minimum age for its Quest headsets from 13 to 10. After I heard about the plan and contacted Meta for comment this week, spokesperson Joe Osborne confirmed it and shared a blog post about the news that the company is planning to publish soon. It says that parents will have to approve the creation of a kid’s account and that Meta will only recommend apps that are rated safe for that age group. Ads also won’t be shown to kids.
Perhaps most importantly, a 10 to…