Facebook parent Meta Platforms put make the most of its virtual-reality platform over safety, two former researchers told a Senate panel on Tuesday.
Former Meta user experience researcher Cayce Savage said the corporate shut down internal research showing Meta knew children were using its VR products and being exposed to sexually explicit material.
“Meta can’t be trusted to inform the reality in regards to the safety or use of its products,” Savage said on the hearing before the Senate subcommittee on privacy and technology.
Meta has come under fire from members of Congress in recent weeks, after Reuters exclusively reported on an internal policy document that permitted the corporate’s chatbots to “engage a toddler in conversations which are romantic or sensual.”
“Does it surprise you that they’d allow their chatbot to interact in these conversations with children?” Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, asked former Meta Reality Labs researcher Jason Sattizahn, who also testified on the hearing on Tuesday.
“No, in no way,” he said.
Meta has previously said the examples reported by Reuters were inconsistent with the corporate’s policies and had been removed.
Savage and Sattizahn are a part of a bunch of current and former Meta employees whose whistleblower claims were first reported by the Washington Post on Monday.
Researchers were told not to analyze harms to children using its VR technology in order that it could claim ignorance of the issue, Savage said. Savage encountered instances of youngsters being bullied, sexually assaulted and asked for nude photographs in the middle of her work, she said.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a press release that the claims are “based on selectively leaked internal documents that were picked specifically to craft a false narrative,” and that “there was never any blanket prohibition on conducting research with young people.”
Blackburn said on the hearing that the whistleblower accounts further underline the necessity for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill she co-sponsored which the Senate passed last yr but which failed within the House of Representatives.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms put make the most of its virtual-reality platform over safety, two former researchers told a Senate panel on Tuesday.
Former Meta user experience researcher Cayce Savage said the corporate shut down internal research showing Meta knew children were using its VR products and being exposed to sexually explicit material.
“Meta can’t be trusted to inform the reality in regards to the safety or use of its products,” Savage said on the hearing before the Senate subcommittee on privacy and technology.
Meta has come under fire from members of Congress in recent weeks, after Reuters exclusively reported on an internal policy document that permitted the corporate’s chatbots to “engage a toddler in conversations which are romantic or sensual.”
“Does it surprise you that they’d allow their chatbot to interact in these conversations with children?” Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, asked former Meta Reality Labs researcher Jason Sattizahn, who also testified on the hearing on Tuesday.
“No, in no way,” he said.
Meta has previously said the examples reported by Reuters were inconsistent with the corporate’s policies and had been removed.
Savage and Sattizahn are a part of a bunch of current and former Meta employees whose whistleblower claims were first reported by the Washington Post on Monday.
Researchers were told not to analyze harms to children using its VR technology in order that it could claim ignorance of the issue, Savage said. Savage encountered instances of youngsters being bullied, sexually assaulted and asked for nude photographs in the middle of her work, she said.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a press release that the claims are “based on selectively leaked internal documents that were picked specifically to craft a false narrative,” and that “there was never any blanket prohibition on conducting research with young people.”
Blackburn said on the hearing that the whistleblower accounts further underline the necessity for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill she co-sponsored which the Senate passed last yr but which failed within the House of Representatives.
