Meta has invested a great deal of money and resources in its bid for the metaverse, a move that has been heavily criticized by both investors and analystsand that in the end it is encountering important obstacles that make us question this movement more and more.
Don’t get me wrong, I know the metaverse may eventually succeed, but to do so requires that I offer an interesting proposal for users and also for advertisers, and that at the same time allows affordable access, that is, that does not require a large financial investment so that the user can enjoy a good experience.
The only thing that Meta has shown so far is a metaverse with very poor graphics reminiscent of the level we saw on the Wii console, released in 2006, and Horizon Worlds has not only failed to improve this, but rather made it worse. Those who have tried this experience question what Mark Zuckerberg had in mind to invest 10,000 million dollars in this. He left you the video at the end of the article so that you can judge for yourselves.
The fact is that, to attract a greater number of users, Meta was considering lowering the minimum age to access Horizon Worlds, which would go from 18 onwards to over 13 years old. It would be a significant change, but two members of the United States Senate disagree, and have communicated this directly to the CEO of Meta.
For both senators, the metaverse can expose minors to complicated situations and place them in a position of vulnerability that, in the end, could be taken advantage of by adults with bad intentions. They also believe that it could have a negative impact on their intellectual and personal development, and that the consequences of this could be unpredictable. They are right, think about how easy it would be for cases of bullying to arise and the problems that interactions between minors and adults with bad intentions would cause.
For all these reasons, these two senators want Meta to maintain the minimum of 18 years as a requirement to access Horizon Worlds. The company has in hand a project that is not convincing and that has meant a huge costso it is clear that in the end he is going to try to do everything possible to monetize it, even if it means facing the Senate.
