In a recent Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, ex-Meta employee Arturo Bejar drew attention to Meta’s awareness of the risks teenagers face on their platforms. Bejar, who had worked at Facebook from 2009 to 2015 and later at Instagram from 2019 to 2021, claimed that high-level Meta executives including CEO Mark Zuckerberg are aware but have decided not to take significant action in addressing these problems.
In a 2021 email, Bejar notified top Meta executives revealing that over half of Instagram users reported experiencing harm on the platform in the past week, and nearly 25% of child users aged 13 to 15 had encountered unwanted sexual advances.
In his written statement prior to the Senate hearing, Bejar emphasized the need for the public and parents to understand the extent of harm posed by social media platforms. He also called for better tools to enable young users to report and suppress online abuse.
“It’s time that the public and parents understand the true level of harm posed by these ‘products’ and it’s time that young users have the tools to report and suppress online abuse,” Bejar said in his statement.
These revelations come at a time when there is growing bipartisan support for government intervention in regulating the social media industry. Over the last few months, two-thirds of U.S. states have joined forces to file a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the company of dishonesty regarding the addictive nature of social media and its impact on the mental health of children.
In response to these allegations, Meta has maintained the stance that it is committed to protecting young people online. The company stated that a significant number of employees are dedicated to this effort.
“Every day countless people inside and outside of Meta are working on how to help keep young people safe online,” Meta said in a statement.
This piece first appeared at TPUSA.
