Sen. Marsha Blackburn on Wednesday urged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to answer whistleblower accusations that the company “willfully” and “intentionally” pushed virtual reality products it knew were harmful to children, following testimony this week before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.
Two former Meta employees, Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, testified Tuesday that the company suppressed research indicating children were exposed to sexual content in Meta’s virtual environments, including nudity, masturbation and solicitations for sexual activity. Blackburn said the witnesses were credible and invited Zuckerberg to meet with her to refute the allegations.
Sattizahn and Savage said they were assigned to study how Meta’s Reality Labs products affected underage users and that the company knew children under age 13 were using the devices but took minimal steps to address risks. Their testimony was part of a package of complaints from six whistleblowers who have raised concerns about Meta’s handling of its virtual-reality program.
Meta responded to the testimony by saying the hearing relied on selectively leaked internal documents chosen to craft a false narrative. A company spokesperson said there was never a blanket prohibition on conducting research with young people and that, since early 2022, Meta had approved nearly 180 Reality Labs-related studies on youth safety and well-being. The company also said engineers have built safety features into devices, that the products were intended for users older than 13, and that it introduced protections to limit unwanted contact, such as default voice-channel settings and personal boundaries in Horizon Worlds.
Blackburn said Meta’s explanations did not satisfy her and called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the company’s practices. She also reiterated her support for the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act, a bipartisan bill she cosponsors with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., that would impose a “duty of care” on online platforms to protect minors from sexual abuse, bullying and other harms and give parents tools to set parameters for children’s online use.
The Senate passed a version of that bill last year, but it was not taken up by the House. Critics, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have raised free speech concerns and argued the bill’s language could be overly broad. Blackburn rejected that framing, saying laws that protect children in the physical world — such as those barring sale of alcohol and tobacco to minors or prohibiting the exposure of children to pornography — have parallels in regulating virtual spaces.
The controversy follows earlier scrutiny of Meta over Facebook’s and Instagram’s impact on adolescents; Zuckerberg faced questioning last year and apologized to families for harm linked to the platforms. Meta has invested heavily in virtual reality since acquiring Oculus in 2014 and later rebranded as Meta as it pushed development of a metaverse. The company has recently shifted significant focus toward artificial intelligence while continuing development of Reality Labs products.
Blackburn, who won a second Senate term last year and is running for governor of Tennessee, said parents and children are fatigued by online harms and that Congress should act to ensure virtual spaces are safe. The Senate subcommittee hearing and the whistleblowers’ allegations set the stage for additional oversight and potential regulatory or legislative responses as lawmakers and federal agencies evaluate Meta’s conduct and policies regarding minors in virtual environments.