Ensuring Age-Appropriate Experiences on Meta Quest Through Birthdate Verification

We’re asking everyone who has a Meta Account on Quest 2 and/or 3 to confirm their age by re-entering their birthdate. We’re doing this to help ensure that everyone using Meta Quest Platform has access to age-appropriate tools, content and protections.

The Right Account For You

Whether you’re trying to survive a zombie apocalypse, catching a concert with friends or visiting the International Space Station with your family, there’s something for everyone on the Meta Quest platform. Understanding the ages of people on Meta Quest helps both us and developers provide the right experience, settings, and protections for teens and preteens. 

• Adults (18+): When you set up your account, you’ll choose if you want a private or public profile and who can see the app you’re currently using and your activity (like recent apps or achievements) . Active status is shown to followers and connections by default if you’re 18 or over, although you can turn it off at any time.

• Teens (13-17): A teen Meta account on Quest has more privacy-oriented default settings. The profile is set to private automatically, meaning the teen approves follower requests. Activity, active status and the app in use are automatically hidden  to others unless the teen decides to share them. We also have parental supervision tools for teens ages 13-17 on Meta Quest, making it easier for parents and guardians to customize their teens’ experience and support healthy conversations about safety in VR. 

• Preteens (10-12): Preteens have the most restrictive account settings. Preteen accounts are called parent-managed accounts, and they require parents to set up an account for their 10-, 11-, or 12-year-old. Preteens must have their parent’s approval in order to set up an account. Preteen profiles default to private, and the activity, active status, and app-in-use are likewise set to private, with parents given control over these settings. Additionally, parents control whether their preteen can download or use an app, and parents can block access to specific apps at any time. 

How It Works 

Once you receive the prompt, you’ll need to log into your Meta account and enter your birthdate within the next 30 days. Birthdate information is not visible to others unless you choose to share it. Once you enter your birthdate, we’ll help make sure you’re in the right account, which is designed with specific defaults and tools based on your age.

If you accidentally input the wrong birthdate, you’ll have the opportunity to verify your age using either an ID or a credit card. Once verified, you’ll be able to use your Meta account again. 

Please be sure to enter your birthday within the 30-day window to avoid your account being temporarily blocked. This does not mean your account is gone, but you will not be able to use your Meta account with your Quest device until you enter your date of birth.

Our Approach To Understanding Age

On our app store, we want to make it easier for developers to better understand the ages of people who use their apps so they can provide age-appropriate experiences for preteens, teens and adults. Parents, in turn, can trust that apps are providing the most age-appropriate experience and protections the app offers for their child’s age.  

One way we do this is by continuing to invest in our own User Age Group APIs, which are designed to help developers understand how old their users are.  For example, when someone launches an app on the Meta Quest platform, these APIs allow Meta to share whether the app is used by a preteen, teen or adult account. The  app is then able to use this information to tailor a more age-appropriate experience and to properly protect young people’s data. 

Family Center 

You can learn more about the specific protections we’ve built for preteens in parent-managed accounts. Visit the Family Center if you want to create a new parent-managed Meta account or want to explore our other Parental Supervision settings and tools for teens. And check out the Quest Parent Guide for more info. 

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