Two former Meta employees alleged in sworn congressional testimony Tuesday that the company’s virtual reality products have exposed children to adult content such as nudity, sexual propositions and live masturbation.
The former employees, Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, worked as researchers who specialized in studying the welfare of underage users of Meta VR products. They told members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law that Meta disregarded their findings, censored their attempts to do further research and, in at least one instance, deleted evidence of a youth’s being sexually harassed.
Their testimony added to years of controversy around CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s company and how minors are treated on his social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Spurred by testimony from earlier whistleblowers and by news reports, lawmakers, class action lawyers and state attorneys general have been pushing for changes at Meta, as well as compensation for those who say they’ve been hurt.
Sattizahn and Savage both worked in various departments at Meta over several years before they focused on the topic of minors and virtual reality. Meta has poured billions of dollars into developing virtual reality spaces and the headsets used to access them, but the two former employees said Meta has not devoted sufficient resources to online safety.
“Meta is aware that children are being harmed in VR,” Savage testified at the hearing.
“I quickly...
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