Epic Games Partners With Lego To Create A Child-Friendly Metaverse

The internet allows interactions as well as engagements, both in a good way or a bad way.

The good thing is that, it allows people to communicate through the distance, halfway across the globe, in real time. As for the bad thing, the internet allows people to hide behind their screens, do malicious things, and get away with it.

And since Facebook rebranded to Meta, the industry started to massively shift towards this so-called metaverse. And this is making things more complicated.

This is because sooner than later, it was realized that the metaverse may not be suitable for everybody.

This is because people have little clue to what could happen in this virtual world, until the first cases of virtual sexual harassments and assaults happened on Meta's virtual world Horizon Worlds.

Later, a researchers found that the metaverse is not at all safe for children due to the lack of safety and security feature.

Epic Games is the giant game developer.

Realizing that the metaverse can be a "multitrillion-dollar" business in the foreseeable future, the company is partnering with Lego.

The iconic toy company is bringing its metaverse with the help of the Fornite maker, saying that the two companies plan to "build an immersive, creatively inspiring and engaging digital experience for kids of all ages.”

In other words, both Epic Games and Lego want to create a metaverse that is safer for children.

"Kids enjoy playing in digital and physical worlds and move seamlessly between the two," said Lego Group CEO Niels Chirstiansen. "We believe there is huge potential for them to develop life-long skills such as creativity, collaboration and communication through digital experiences. But we have a responsibility to make them safe, inspiring and beneficial for all."

"We are excited to come together to build a space in the metaverse that’s fun, entertaining, and made for kids and families," said Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney in a press release.

To make this happen, the two companies have agreed (1, 2) to three principles which should ensure the digital spaces they develop deliver engaging play opportunities safely:

1. Protect children’s right to play by making safety and wellbeing a priority.
2. Safeguard children’s privacy by putting their best interests first.
3. Empower children and adults with tools that give them control over their digital experience.

Both Epic Games and Lego are two heavy-hitters.

They are the giants in the entertainment and toy space.

But by saying that they are creating an immersive digital experience that’s safe and fun for children of all ages, they are essentially facing an uphill battle.

As previously said, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a change of name from Facebook to Meta, as his company ambitiously plans to build the metaverse, the term "metaverse" quickly became a trending and highly debated topic.

Many companies started to brainstorm their own metaverses, and experiment on things to see what's what, and scouting for any possible earning sources.

Most importantly, many brands are still trying to figure out how they can benefit from this virtual world.

With the many players in various industries started wondering what the metaverse can finally become, the more people realize that the metaverse is still a new territory even for many tech companies.

With the downsides of gaming, including bullying, racism and harassment, have already seeped into the metaverse, Epic Games partners with Lego with the aim to change all that, for the sake of their younger consumers.