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3w ago

Former Meta Researchers Tell Senate Company Buried VR Child-Safety Research

Lawmakers signaled they will push new child-safety rules in response to the disclosures.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during a dinner with tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. © Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Former Meta Platforms researchers Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s privacy panel on Tuesday.

Overview

  • Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage testified under oath that Meta blocked or diluted internal studies and that children in its VR spaces encountered nudity, sexual propositions and live masturbation.
  • They recounted a 2023 field interview in Germany where a teen said adults sexually propositioned his under‑10 brother, alleging a supervisor ordered the recording and notes deleted before the incident was omitted from the final report.
  • Meta disputed the claims as selective and misleading, saying there was no blanket ban on youth research and citing roughly 180 Reality Labs studies since 2022 along with parental tools and default protections.
  • The whistleblowers are part of a group that provided thousands of pages of documents to Congress and have filed disclosures with the FTC and SEC through Whistleblower Aid.
  • Senators referenced separate concerns about Meta’s AI chatbot policies and pointed to renewed efforts to advance legislation such as the Kids Online Safety Act.