Children able to enter virtual strip clubs in the metaverse

FACEBOOK must find its “moral compass” and protect the young in its new “metaverse”, the children’s commissioner for England has said.

Rachel de Souza said that tech giants have enough data on their users to know who the children on their services are and must do more to protect them.

It emerged that children as young as 13 were able to enter virtual strip clubs and view simulated sex acts in Facebook’s new virtual reality social network, known as the “metaverse”.

Ms de Souza said: “Companies need to do more, they need to step up.

“We’ll have proper age gates and force these companies to only give ageappropriate material to children.”

The children’s commissioner’s intervention comes as concern is growing over Facebook’s virtual reality network.

The metaverse is a set of apps and experiences that people can access using Facebook’s virtual reality headset, called the Oculus Quest 2, that lets them do everything from play video games to enter virtual chat rooms.

However, an investigation by the BBC found that users are not age checked before entering various chat rooms, which are rated as suitable for 13-year-olds and older.

It also found that children were mixing with adults freely in the metaverse, including in virtual strip clubs.

Reporters said they witnessed people urging each other to “get naked and do unspeakable things”, others talking about “erotic role-play”.

Ms de Souza said that Facebook needed to start ensuring underage children are not getting into the metaverse.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she said: “Meta hasn’t made their metaverse safe by design.

“Are you telling me that Mark Zuckerberg, with all his fantastic engineers and ability to create this, can’t keep children safe? That’s my challenge to the social media companies and they should be stepping up now.”

Responding to the investigation, Facebook said it has tools for players to block and report other users and that it is working to improve the metaverse’s safety “as it learns how people interact in these spaces”.