Zuckerberg’s apology came after Sen. Josh Hawley, during a hearing on online child safety, called on the Meta CEO to directly apologize to the families in the room whose children had either died or suffered emotional damage as a result of social media.
Family members of children who killed themselves after online sexual exploitation are attending the congressional hearing with pictures of their children in hand.
A clearly distressed Zuckerberg said: “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered.” He also added that Meta is working on and investing in “industry-wide efforts” to protect children.
This report is courtesy of CNBC TV :
Zuckerberg was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing titled “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.” Chief executives of other companies set to testify included TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, Discord’s Jason Citron, X’s Linda Yaccarnio, and Snap’s Evan Spiegel.
Unrealistic beauty standards, sexual predators, addictive features, suicide, bullying, and eating disorders are just some of the issues young people are dealing with on social media.
Children’s advocacy groups and lawmakers say Meta and other companies are not doing enough to protect them.
