Meeting User Age Group Requirements: A Closer Look

Earlier this year, we announced age group self-certification requirements for all developers building or distributing apps on Meta Quest beginning January 2024 (March for App Lab). These requirements help ensure we’re working together to create and maintain safe experiences for children on our platform.

Your app’s intended audience will impact how these changes affect your organization and what responsibilities you’ll need to fulfill. Hear from Steve Drennan, Developer Policy and Process Lead at Meta, to get a clear breakdown of what’s required for each age group and what to expect starting in January.

Now that you’re familiar with what you’ll need to do, we recommend bookmarking this resource page as a hub to reference key documentation, policies, and requirements throughout the certification and implementation process. If you think your app might be intended for mixed ages, keep reading for additional tips and recommendations.

Apps intended for mixed ages (users under 13 and 13+) are required to implement the Meta-provided Get Age Category API. While it might not seem like an incredibly time-consuming task at first, it’s important to consider that once you self-certify your app’s intended audience, you’ll only have 30 days to implement the API. After that period passes, your app will be removed from the Meta Quest Store or App Lab.

The Get Age Category API provides you with a user’s age category (10-12, 13-17, 18+), so that you can help ensure that your users have access to age-appropriate content and experiences in your app and treat the data of users under 13 appropriately. We'll validate the implementation of the API by monitoring your API analytics, but we will not conduct any additional review of your implementation.

We anticipate that implementing Get Age Category API may take up to a week. What may take significantly more time is for your organization to determine how and when to support users under 13. Reference the graphic below to find a recommended timeline for implementing the Get Age Category API that can help ensure you meet all of your responsibilities on time.

As a reminder, apps that are intended for Teens and Adults (13+) are not required to implement the Get Age Category API. Additionally, apps intended for Children (under 13) won’t be able to implement some Platform SDK features and therefore aren’t required to implement either API.

We’re here to support you throughout the age group self-certification process, and if you encounter issues during integration you can submit a ticket in the Support Center⁠ to receive support from Meta experts.

Be sure to refer to the new resource page which contains links to the following policies and documentation:

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