Rec Room will be suspending ‘Junior Accounts’ shortly, prohibiting players under 13, so they will not enjoy the VR experience on other Meta devices.
Rec Room claims in a comment that Meta is asking the biggest VR playground (and all software developers) to restrict accessibility for kids under 13. In the other case, the administration will delete such accounts from the Quest Store in the current month. And this isn’t just limited to Rec Room; this is an entire store sweeping change across all apps.
Junior profiles in Rec Room have some limitations, preventing default options for users who are not aged 13:
• communicating via voice chat;
• chatting with other players;
• hitting other players;
• playing painting-related games.
All of these are because service restricts them from sharing their artwork. This is not a general restriction on Junior’s profile in the Rec Room since children may continue using other compatible devices, such as Android phones, consoles, and other non-Meta VR. Meta does not legally permit children under the age of 13 to sign up for its Quest VR’s, stating in its privacy rules that Meta Quest systems “are not for kids,” meaning that small kids have “higher chances of harming than adults.”
However, it’s obvious that children somehow get their hands on Meta devices and adult accounts, so it appears Meta is trying to reduce responsibility.
The decision to restrict such an audience from Rec Room will not significantly impact the total number of active users. At the beginning of this year, the company achieved over 2.8 million players, primarily gaming on Meta Quest 2. Nevertheless, the company stated that active VR users were a “very tiny amount” of the entire player base, which allows playing on devices such as smartphones, Playstation and Xbox.