FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 11, 2025
Contact:
Ashwin Verghese
717 676 8584
[email protected]
MEDIA ADVISORY
Congress members support Fairplay FTC complaint against Meta
WASHINGTON, DC — In a new letter, Sen. Edward Markey and Rep. Kathy Castor urge the Federal Trade Commission to act on Fairplay’s request for an investigation into Meta for violating children’s safety and privacy on its “Horizon Worlds” VR gaming platform.
“These accusations deserve the FTC’s attention,” Markey, D-Mass., and Castor, D-Fla., write in their letter to FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson. “The FTC should immediately open an investigation into this petition and take any actions necessary to protect children online.”
In a request filed with the FTC on Thursday, Fairplay, a nonprofit child advocacy group, alleges that Meta is knowingly putting children in harm’s way on Horizon Worlds — and hoovering up their data in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA.
Markey and Castor are authors of COPPA 2.0, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, which would expand critical privacy protections for young people on online platforms.
Fairplay’s request to the FTC also received support from Meta whistleblower Kelly Stonelake, who formerly served as the director of product marketing for Horizon Worlds.
INVESTIGATION INTO HORIZON WORLDS
In their letter, Markey and Castor point out “serious and troubling allegations” in Fairplay’s request, which followed a months-long investigation into Horizon Worlds.
Fairplay found that children under 13 make up a substantial part of Horizon Worlds’ user base — and that every time they log on to the platform, they risk sexual predation, financial harm, bullying, and harassment.
These children access Horizon Worlds using standard accounts, even though kids ages 10-12 are ostensibly required to have a child account that provides greater privacy protections.
Fairplay also discovered that Meta knows children under 13 are accessing the platform improperly, but it continues to collect vast amounts of their personal data without parental notice and consent in flagrant violation of COPPA.
According to a sworn statement from Stonelake — who helped verify Fairplay’s findings after its investigation was complete — even Meta’s own employees didn’t want to use Horizon Worlds “due to product stability issues and virtual spaces dominated by screaming and swearing children (including users under the age of 13).”
MARKEY AND CASTOR LETTER
In their letter, Markey and Castor say that Meta appears to have “blatantly violated” the law.
“Congress originally passed COPPA to safeguard children’s privacy in the face of evolving technological threats,” they write. “Although the original law needs an update to account for those new threats, Meta appears to have blatantly violated the COPPA requirements.”
The Congress members add: “The volume of personal information collected from children in VR — including body movements, facial expressions, voice recordings, eye tracking, and environmental data — renders these allegations especially concerning. Moreover, VR platforms do not merely present screen-based content, they envelop young users in highly interactive, sensory-rich worlds that can blur the boundary between virtual and physical experiences.
“For those reasons, the allegations in the Fairplay petition deserve urgent attention from the FTC.”
Read Markey and Castor’s letter.
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Fairplay is the leading nonprofit committed to helping children thrive in an increasingly commercialized, screen-obsessed culture, and the only organization dedicated to ending marketing to children. Fairplay works to enhance children’s well-being by eliminating the exploitative and harmful business practices of marketers and Big Tech. Learn more at https://fairplayforkids.org.