Meta whistleblowers told a Senate panel that the company prioritized VR (virtual reality) profits over kids’ safety, suppressing internal findings that showed underage users were exposed to serious harm. According to the New York Post:
Former Meta user experience researcher Cayce Savage said the company shut down internal research showing Meta knew children were using its VR products and being exposed to sexually explicit material.
“Meta cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the safety or use of its products,” Savage said at the hearing before the Senate subcommittee on privacy and technology.
Meta has come under fire from members of Congress in recent weeks, after Reuters exclusively reported on an internal policy document that permitted the company’s chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.”
“Does it surprise you that they would allow their chatbot to engage in these conversations with children?” Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, asked former Meta Reality Labs researcher Jason Sattizahn, who also testified at the hearing on Tuesday.
“No, not at all,” he said.
NLPC is similarly unsurprised. We identified Meta’s disregard for child safety in our 2024 shareholder proposal, which asked the company to examine raising the minimum age to use its platforms from thirteen to a higher age such as sixteen or eighteen, and put its recommendations to a shareholder vote. NLPC also filed a proxy memo with the Securities and Exchange Commission in support of the proposal. One of NLPC’s main concerns was that social media platforms expose children to inappropriate content. The memo noted that:
In some cases, it may be deliberate. Another lawsuit filed by the State of New Mexico alleges that “Meta has allowed Facebook and Instagram to become a marketplace for predators in search of children upon whom to prey.
Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also ignored or killed changes proposed by his subordinates to increase protections for children on the company’s social media platforms.
Meta is continuing to put its profits above the health and well-being of children. Youth harm is a grave ethical issue that compounds into legal, regulatory, and reputational liability. Investors should increase their pressure on Meta to make substantial changes.
