Former Meta Employees Allege Suppression of VR Child Safety Research

Two former Meta employees, Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, alleging that the company prioritized profits from its virtual reality (VR) platforms over the safety of child users.

Savage, a former user experience researcher at Meta, stated that the company knowingly allowed children to access its VR products, exposing them to harmful content, including sexual material. She claimed that Meta deliberately ignored internal research to maintain plausible deniability. Sattizahn, who worked in Meta's Reality Labs, corroborated these claims, noting that the company's leniency towards inappropriate chatbot behavior with children was unsurprising.

The whistleblowers are part of a group that disclosed documents to Congress, accusing Meta of manipulating or burying internal research that highlighted risks to children on its VR platforms. They alleged that children encountered sexual solicitation and graphic content, but the company restricted further research instead of taking action.

In response, Meta dismissed the allegations as misrepresentations based on selectively leaked documents, denying any prohibition on child-related safety research. A company spokesperson stated that there was never any blanket prohibition on conducting research with young people and highlighted that, since 2022, Meta conducted about three dozen studies on social issues related to young people and hundreds more on other youth-related matters.

The testimonies have intensified scrutiny of Meta's practices regarding child safety in virtual environments, with lawmakers expressing concerns over the company's handling of internal research and its implications for young users.