With the new long-term partnership, the two companies intend to build a family-friendly and kid-safe metaverse providing children with creative tools to encourage them to create and share their own content.
The two companies have agreed upon three main principles to ensure safe opportunities to enter the digital spaces:
- Protect children’s right to play by making safety and wellbeing a priority;
- Safeguard children’s privacy by putting their best interests first;
- Empower children and adults with tools that give them control over their digital experience.
"Kids enjoy playing in digital and physical worlds and move seamlessly between the two. We believe there is huge potential for them to develop life-long skills such as creativity, collaboration, and communication through digital experiences," said CEO of The LEGO Group Niels B Christiansen. "But we have a responsibility to make them safe, inspiring, and beneficial for all. Just as we’ve protected children’s rights to safe physical play for generations, we are committed to doing the same for digital play."
Epic Games is known for building creative tools in the games industry. According to its blog post, it is also committed to "enabling developers to create age-appropriate experiences online". In 2020 Epic acquired SuperAwesome, a company dedicated to delivering safe digital experiences and protecting children’s online privacy. Partnering with the LEGO Group, the company intends to ensure that the new generation of the internet will be "designed from the outset with the wellbeing of kids in mind".
"The LEGO Group has captivated the imagination of children and adults through creative play for nearly a century, and we are excited to come together to build a space in the metaverse that’s fun, entertaining, and made for kids and families," shared CEO and founder of Epic Games Tim Sweeney.
It is currently unclear how exactly this new metaverse will take shape as well as the timeline for its release hasn't been announced yet.
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