Meta adds an 18 and up tag in Horizon Worlds, opening the door to mature VR content

Image: Meta

Meta's platform that lets people create virtual worlds for shared experiences is expanding what types of content can be created. The company has added an 18 and up tag for user-created worlds and updated its policy to allow creators to include "mature" content that was previously banned. If creators don't manually mark whether their world is mature or safe, it will be restricted to 18 and up.

Meta is now allowing content that was previously banned based on an archive of the policy page from April. The page used to say that depictions of weed and alcohol, as well as sexually suggestive content, were not allowed in the world. You can include those types of things in your world if you mark them as mature.

Still restrictions are present. Those are broken down.

If you mark your word as mature, you can include sexually suggestive content, such as depictions of people in implied or suggestive positions, or an environment that is overly suggestive. Nudity, depictions of people in explicit positions, or content that is sexually provocative or implied are not allowed.

Regulated substances and violence are the same thing. You can have mature worlds dedicated to promoting marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, or age-regulated activities, but can't promote illegal drugs or abuse of prescription drugs. You cannot show real-life violence because it can shock or disgust users.

There are a few places where the lines are not clear. When it comes to sex, how suggestive is it. Weed is an illegal drug in the United States. Meta is leaving room for issues to crop up with creators that want to push the boundaries because it sees metaverse moderation as something critical to its success.

Meta's policy page says that it has had issues making sure that Horizon is a safe and welcoming place. It introduced a system that prevents other users from getting too close to yours after complaints that people had been mimicking sexual harassment during the game's alpha stage. It has a feature that allows you to make people's voices unintelligible if you're not friends with them.