{"id":216044,"date":"2025-09-10T17:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216044\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T17:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:27:10","slug":"a-bombshell-child-safety-leak-changed-meta-for-the-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216044\/","title":{"rendered":"A bombshell child safety leak changed Meta \u2014 for the worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2021, when former Meta employee Frances Haugen blew the whistle<\/a> on dangers that the company\u2019s platforms posed to kids, Meta realized it needed to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to tell you today that Meta has changed,\u201d said one of a new set of whistleblowers \u2014 former Meta user experience researcher Cayce Savage \u2014 before the the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, \u201cfor the worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savage and another former Meta researcher, Jason Sattizahn, appeared before the subcommittee on September 9th. Their testimonies built on an account that they and several other former and current employees shared with The Washington Post<\/a>, which recently detailed allegations that Meta unleashed its legal team on its own researchers to suppress findings that its virtual reality<\/a> services harmed kids. As Congress struggled to pass tech regulation spurred by Haugen\u2019s revelations, lawmakers contended, Meta has simply learned to hide its problems better.<\/p>\n

The former researchers testified that children under 13 are rampant on Meta\u2019s VR social platforms, despite having their access officially restricted<\/a>. These spaces pose the same dangers as the rest of the internet, including sexual predators, but the immersive nature of VR, the whistleblowers said, could make interactions more potent. \u201cIn VR, someone can stand behind your child and whisper in their ear, and your child will feel their presence as though it\u2019s real,\u201d Savage testified. \u201cVR is tracking a user\u2019s real life movements, so assault in VR requires those movements to happen in real life. What happens in virtual reality is reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Savage and Sattizahn said Meta lawyers discouraged and even threatened researchers against collecting information that would confirm it had a problem, fearing a paper trail that could create legal liability unless it removed a large group of engaged users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research they\u2019re doing is being pruned and manipulated\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement on the Washington Post story, Meta spokesperson Dani Lever said the whistleblowers\u2019 examples were cherry-picked \u201cto fit a predetermined and false narrative\u201d and that the company has \u201capproved nearly 180 Reality Labs-related studies on social issues, including youth safety and well-being.\u201d At the hearing, Sattizahn called this stat a \u201clie by avoidance,\u201d since \u201cthe whole point of this testimony is that the research they\u2019re doing is being pruned and manipulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haugen\u2019s momentous 2021 report revealed a trove of internal research documents demonstrating that Meta was aware products like Instagram had harmful effects on some teens<\/a>, including negative body image issues. Rather than adjust its protocols to better protect kids and teens, testified Savage and Sattizahn, Meta learned to stop creating those documents. \u201cIt was the wrong lesson,\u201d Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said at a press conference ahead of the hearing.<\/p>\n

The company created a regime of \u201clegal surveillance,\u201d Sattizahn said, where lawyers would monitor researchers\u2019 work, \u201climiting the topics, the questions, the methods that you can use before you even collect data.\u201d He testified that Meta executives threatened his job should he not comply and recalled that the company\u2019s lawyers would ask him to delete or stop collecting data about emotional and psychological harm. \u201cLegal\u2019s repeated, explicit statements to me, was that we did not want this data because it was too risky for us to have, because if there was an outside audit, it would be discovered that Meta knew about these harms,\u201d he testified.<\/p>\n

Savage said that the issue of young kids on Meta\u2019s VR platform was so prevalent that every time she personally used the product, the majority of people she interacted with were \u201caudibly under the age of 13.\u201d Both whistleblowers believe Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is aware of the issue. \u201cThe only way that he would not be aware is if he had never used his own headset,\u201d Savage said.<\/p>\n

When Haugen came forward, Congress responded with the largest push for kids online safety legislation in decades. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Blumenthal introduced the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in early 2022<\/a>, aiming to make platforms legally responsible for protecting kids. But the efforts have fizzled. KOSA passed the Senate last year with a 91-3 vote, but it never reached the House floor. \u201cI could have given the same talking points\u201d about child safety four years ago, Blumenthal said. \u201cNothing has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parent advocates like Maurine Molak, whose teen son David died by suicide after compulsive use of online platforms and cyberbullying, showed up once again for the hearing. On a KOSA advocacy trip in December<\/a>, shortly before the bill withered in the House, Molak wasn\u2019t sure if she\u2019d be back if it failed. In DC on Tuesday, she said she decided to keep pushing forward after Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) committed to continue championing the bill.<\/p>\n

Savage said she \u201cdeliberated for a long time about whether to come forward\u201d after seeing how little positive impact Haugen had. \u201cMeta responded to Frances Haugen\u2019s disclosure in 2021 by cracking down on research internally,\u201d Savage reflected. \u201cResearchers across the company were subjected to sudden censorship, and were told it was for our own protection so we wouldn\u2019t be part of any future leaks. Candidly, I am worried that speaking to you today will put my former colleagues, as well as the field of user research within Meta at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

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