Brands are wooing kids in the Metaverse, but how safe is the 'Phygital' world for the young ones?

An ever-increasing number of brands focused on kids are treading into the Metaverse today. This race for capturing the most tech-savvy generation’s attention works quite well for the brands, but there are also growing concerns regarding the kids’ safety too in a largely unregulated space.

Some other concerns also include the impact the ‘Phygital’ world would have on the mental growth and learning ability of the children and also the benefits that this experience would bring.

Most recently, Lego partnered with Epic Games to build a metaverse for kids. Nickelodeon too organised Kids Choice Awards and enabled Metaverse technology for children in India to attend the award ceremony. Audiences attended the awards with avatars with a gamified approach and activities in the event. Nike built ‘Airtopia’, a kids’ world in the metaverse. Recently, children fashion brand Balabala announced its entry into the metaverse, creating a hyper-realistic digital brand ambassador named 'Rainy'. Other kids’ brands, including Hasbro and Mattel, have also begun with their Metaverse journey. 

Metaverse is already being adopted by kids across the globe, brands are quick to understand this and are already targeting kids in the Metaverse. This could be gauged from the above-mentioned developments occurring in 2022. 

Metaverse opens the floodgate of imagination for kids

Niraj Ruparel

Niraj Ruparel, Head Of Mobile and Emerging Tech – GroupM India, Emerging Tech Lead - WPP India, believes that Metaverse can be a powerful way for children to develop their self-identity and improve the horizon of their creativity and imagination. He said, “They learn about how to interact and the reaction they get from others based on their behaviour.” 

He further said that the reason the metaverse has captured everyone's imagination is that it takes us back to a time when we were not limited by the real world - when we were children, we dreamt big and used our imagination to escape the boring moments in our lives. “The metaverse is like the adult version of that experience, but most have forgotten about how to 'dream big' - there is the opportunity for brands to work with children on unlocking our creativity,” he added. 

Rajat Ojha

Rajat Ojha, CEO at Gamitronics, which has a metaverse platform – PartyNite, said, “Metaverse can help children experience all these things like light, sound velocity, geography, or anything else. It is like having laboratories at home. There are so many examples of creating an educational environment or even social circles. For example, experiencing a Harry Potter world will be a global thing for children across the world to be in. This would have not been possible before.”
Metaverse isn’t a new concept for kids born in the digital world. They have been known to platforms like Roblox and Minecraft even before Metaverse became a hyped term.

Rashid Ahmed

Rashid Ahmed, Head of Digital at Infectious Advertising, said, “There are game environments that have been in existence for a while now, and some like Minecraft, are fairly popular with children (ages 7+), and participants get to socially interact (via their characters), being exposed to creativity, people and varied cultures. Many environments have parental control features for access safety.”

How safe is a child in the Metaverse?

But with the increase in children having access to the adult-centred realms of Metaverse, it has become a matter of concern among parents about their kids' safety and privacy. Children are using their parents' laptops and VR headsets to interact in the digital world of adults. Therefore, experts are raising concerns about the need for guardrails from predators online. 

According to a survey conducted by Wunderman Thompson Data for Wunderman Thompson Intelligence, kids’ safety is a top concern: 72% of parents who are familiar with the metaverse are worried about their kids’ privacy and 66% are concerned about their safety.

Krishna Iyer

Krishna Iyer, Director – Marketing, MullenLowe Lintas Group, emphasised that if safety is not given the importance it deserves, the Metaverse may just as easily turn into ‘Meta-worse’ – especially for unsuspecting kids just entering the metaverse, unsupervised. 

He said, “There are two parts to this problem. With tools of technology introduced, used and abused at a younger age runs a risk of kids not being in touch as much with the real world as they should be. It opens up unsafe passages for cybercrimes, harassment and inappropriate content. If a metaverse-based product for children lands in the market, it should highlight the safety guardrails that it has installed. In fact, it must lead with ‘safety’. Else, parents, the decision-makers, won’t approve of the metaverse, however promising it may sound.”

In March 2022, Meta announced plans to launch new parental supervision features on its virtual reality Quest headset to ensure kids are safe while interacting in the Metaverse through their devices.

Similarly, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said in a public statement that the platform will ensure it builds a space in the metaverse that’s fun, entertaining, and made for kids and families. Epic Games will prioritise children’s safety and privacy, and will “empower children and adults with tools that give them control over their digital experience.”

Krishnan Sunderarajan

Speaking on the safety measures taken by Metaverse platforms, Krishnan Sunderarajan, Founder of Loka World, featured on Shark Tank India and introduced Metaverse to the general public, said, “For the children, there is an extra layer where the children will give you permission to interact with them, and even after giving permission if something goes wrong, the kid can block the person or even report them. We realise that most of our TG are younger so we are building it safer for them. We are also building a peep-up mode where the parent has access to the children’s activities.”

“In our Metaverse, we are introducing something called Selfie for face avatars, so your avatar looks like you. From this, we can detect any discrepancies and monitor whether the person is actually the person they are pretending to be. Putting all of that checks we are making it better and safer,” he added.

While Ojha said that they have a KYC for children, so that they don't end up at places they shouldn’t be at. In terms of all the voice communication, PartyNite is also working on keeping away profanity, they are constantly monitoring and keep policing the children. 

What should brands do to target kids in the Metaverse?

Until the government bodies across the globe think of devising guidelines and rules regarding targeting kids on the Metaverse, brands have a clean slate to engage with the kids there. 

According to GroupM’s Ruparel, “What would the brand be to a child in the metaverse is a question best answered by a child.”

Ahmed said, “The Metaverse age is likely to shape entire generations going ahead. The manner in which children’s brands make themselves available and the kind of impact they are ‘perceived’ to have, will dictate their longevity on Metaverse platforms. A lot of regulatory guardrails will likely crop up, buttressed by a high degree of parental monitoring and reporting. Brands that bring value to children’s development and wellbeing will likely do well in the Metaverse, in the long run.”

Shradha Agarwal

Shradha Agarwal, CEO and Co-Founder of Grapes, said, “Metaverse can be leveraged for better penetration into the market. As influencer marketing is the rage at the current time, brands can venture into metaverse influencer marketing for mass appeal in augmented reality. Companies can also conduct interactive live events for opening up new avenues for human connectivity and bring people virtually together in real-time.”

Iyer believes that the ‘Push strategy’ won’t work for brands in the Metaverse. “If brands want to get their young audiences to engage with them in the metaverse, it will have to entice them so. The brands need to showcase to parents (likely decision-makers) the value that metaverse engagement will bring to their children. And parents will allow their children to engage in the metaverse only if the brand is able to create safe spaces for the young ones.”

Anjali Malthankar

To lure in the Alpha consumers, Anjali Malthankar, National Strategy Director, Tonic Worldwide, suggested that over and above the usual suspects - merchandise, NFTs and basic sponsorships, brands can play alongside the children on these platforms and be their friends. Children are hungry for new experiences and any brand that either creates a new experience or helps them get to the new experience is going to win their hearts too.

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