Any plans to increase VR Chats terms and Condition to be 17+

General Discussion
1

Good afternoon,

I am inquiring if there are any plans to increase the VR Chat account terms and conditions to 17+.

This concern arises due to various cases being filed in US district court against a similar corporations:

Doe v. Roblox Corporation and Discord Inc.

Seits v. Roblox Corporation and Discord Inc.

Jane Doe B.L. v. Roblox Corporation

I’m sure everyone is aware of the implications of minors on the platform, and all the various “YouTube documentaries” about child endangerment.

This could all be mitigated extremely easily by simply making VR Chat a 17+ platform. I am aware of publishers delisting of the platform if it becomes an 18+ platform, but a 17+ platform, and a policy upon discovery of obvious juveniles on the platform being removed until they hit the appropriate age will greatly diminish this entire liability risk, and reduce child endangerment.

I am inquiring if there are any plans to do so, I feel this is a perfect compromise, it allows the platform to remain with various publishers and also secures VR Chat from liability, and increases platform safety overall.

This small change could have huge impact, and I’m inquiring if VR Chat has any plans, or if this has changed any of the studios mindset on this issue.

Thank you

DeliveryBoy90🤙

1 Like
2

1. That wouldn’t solve anything, objectively. Children have been lying online since 1986, and ID locking the game will kill off the majority userbase.

2. Prove these abuses are happening on VRC at all. Plenty of vigilantes ruining lives but few to no examples of vrc problems leaving the platform.

3

To address your rebuttals, respectfully:

  1. I never mentioned ID locking the game? I only mentioned increasing the terms and conditions to 17+ to avoid liability and exposure to lawsuits.

  2. I can’t, that’s what those lawsuits allege about Roblox Corporation if those cases conclude against Roblox (and Discord in some suits) this exposure will trickle to VRC. Once caselaw is established, it forces other companies to change policies due to increased liability.

If those cases find fault in an alleged neutral platform like Roblox, the same logic could be used against VRC.

From Jane Doe B.L. V Roblox Corporation:

Roblox created an unsafe environment for minors, failed to implement effective safety measures, and misled families about the risks their children faced while using the platform.

The same logic could then be applied to VRC, IF they find fault in a similar comparable creator content platform like Roblox.

Although, in this response, it looks like I’ve answered my own question, if these suits find fault, then VRC will likely change its terms and conditions to reflect this increased liability risk, because duh, they obviously have a legal department that looks at this all day.

Uh, I guess, question answered. :sweat_smile:

4

That’s really not how the enforcement of laws plays out in reality, but your general assumption is a good one to have.

Any burden of proof established by those V Roblox is an entirely different consideration than similar concerns levied against ANY other platform.

How do you ENFORCE a 17+ system? You ID lock it. That is the ONLY way. I guess I was addressing the assumption you failed to make, given all your existing assumptions, and that’s all.