Only a normal account (what we have now for 13+) can make a child account.
Settings default to everything private, unless the parent's account choose otherwise.
Child accounts will be able to cast so parents can watch (normally only primary accounts can cast, not secondary accounts).
Parental control of apps and time limits.
No ads.
Child accounts won't have access to this forum.
Horizon Worlds won't have it's age limits changed, it will remain 13+ for US/Canada and 18+ for Europe (and blocked for everyone not in the 7 supported regions).
Hopefully this makes things safer for children than if they just lie and use a normal account.
I think 13+ in Horizons is fine, people seem to be behaving increasingly better in there but I've heard voices that must be no older than 4 or 5. Generally people are nice and politely explain it's not for them before starting a remove vote.
The children learn pretty quick, once they've been removed from a world or two, they tend to be the one's giving their avatars beards and bald heads. Trying to do a grown up voice though isn't easy.
Intel 13700K, RTX 4070ti, 64GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5, Asus ROG Z790-A, Samsung 2TB 990 Pro M.2 (x2), 4TB 870QVO SSD, Corsair H150i Elite Capellix AIO, Corsair 5000D Airflow, Windows 11 Pro 22H2 (10.0.22621)
As far as IPD goes, my understanding is that the main part of the skull has largely hardened by 10. The eye sockets should be at (or very close to) their adult size and spacing. I let my 5 year old play a bit of Walkabout Mini Golf now and then (in a private room with me, never with strangers, and not for too long at a time), and she seems to do okay with the IPD slider at the lowest setting.
As far as impact on developing eyes, I don’t think it would be an issue unless they’re playing for hours every day.
It would be nice if you could toggle interactions with Child Accounts on and off. I remember shortly after the Quest 2 dropped Alt Space was overrun with squeakers.
In Horizons it's all done on an individual basis which is ok with me. It's a pretty quick process to mute or ignore someone, but yeah, I guess if there are a lot of youngsters and they're constantly disrupting things then a global mute would be good, I don't see that much now though.
tbh the only people I have on my ignore list are a couple of adults. Kids can be a bit noisy and disruptive at times but adults are much more capable of being down-right unpleasant if they want to be.
Luckily both seem to be only an occasional issue these days. I'm not seeing an increase in Meta staff so not sure what's happening, people just getting to know the rules maybe... or likely there was just a peak headset use by kids just following Christmas break.
Intel 13700K, RTX 4070ti, 64GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5, Asus ROG Z790-A, Samsung 2TB 990 Pro M.2 (x2), 4TB 870QVO SSD, Corsair H150i Elite Capellix AIO, Corsair 5000D Airflow, Windows 11 Pro 22H2 (10.0.22621)
The main issue with this is that it does not seem possible to create child accounts. The family center simply takes you around in circles for teen accounts with no option for preteen ones.
