Four whistleblowers, two current and two former Meta employees, have disclosed documents to Congress alleging that the company suppressed or discouraged research into child safety, according to The Washington Post.
The claims suggest that Meta changed its internal policies around studying sensitive topics, including children, politics, race, gender, and harassment, just six weeks after Frances Haugen’s 2021 leaks revealed Instagram’s harmful impact on teen girls’ mental health. Those leaks sparked years of congressional hearings and global scrutiny over children’s safety online.
The whistleblowers say Meta advised researchers to either loop in lawyers to protect findings under attorney-client privilege or describe results vaguely, avoiding phrases like “illegal” or “non-compliant.” One former researcher, Jason Sattizahn, said his manager instructed him to delete recordings of a teen describing how his 10-year-old brother was sexually propositioned in Meta’s VR platform Horizon Worlds.
Meta, however, disputes the allegations, telling TechCrunch:
“These few examples are being stitched together to fit a predetermined and false narrative; in reality, since the start of 2022, Meta has approved nearly 180 Reality Labs-related studies on social issues, including youth safety and well-being.”
The new disclosures echo concerns raised earlier this year in a lawsuit by former Meta executive Kelly Stonelake, who claimed Horizon Worlds lacked safeguards to keep out under-13 users and was plagued by racist abuse. Her suit alleges Black avatars were targeted with slurs within 34 seconds of entering the platform.
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Meta is also under fire for its AI products. Reuters reported last month that its chatbot policies previously allowed “romantic or sensual” conversations with minors, further intensifying scrutiny of the company’s approach to youth safety.
