Sexual assault, racist slurs, gun violence - Ekō researchers only spent an hour in the metaverse before experiencing the dark side of Meta’s platform. And now Meta wants to open up the metaverse to teens.
Meta’s greed-driven execs have tried this before. Remember Meta’s nightmarish Instagram for kids? Meta shelved that plan after a massive public backlash.
If we act fast, and we make a huge public outcry, we can force Meta to drop its toxic metaverse for teens too.
Just this week we joined a massive coalition of civil society groups and child development experts calling on Zuckerberg to terminate his plans -- if we can demonstrate the public outcry, we can make sure he listens.
With crashing share prices and younger users leaving in their droves for TikTok, Meta is desperate to turn its fortunes around. That’s why it's pushing this plan to get teens in its toxic metaverse - make a quick profit, and to hell with the harm it might do to young teenagers.
Meta says that users in the metaverse can turn on safety features that protect them from the most toxic behaviour. Yet again, these clueless tech bros push the responsibility on users to keep themselves safe from their harmful and predatory apps.
Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are fuelling a massive mental health crisis - our kids desperately need these tech platforms to stop exploiting them for profit.
The Ekō community forced Zuckerberg to ditch Instagram for kids. Now let’s make sure he doesn’t push his latest hellscape onto young teens.
More information
Meta Pursues Teen Users as Horizon Metaverse App Struggles to Grow
The Wall Street Journal. 7 February 2023.
The Wall Street Journal. 7 February 2023.
Meta’s Horizon Worlds has been a dud. Now the company is hoping to open up its metaverse to teenagers
Fortune. 7 February 2023.
Fortune. 7 February 2023.