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Ex-researchers say Meta shut down studies into child users

of VR

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Kids exposed to sexual predators on VR, researcher tells

Senate

panel

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Meta calls claims a 'false narrative,' denies blanket ban

on

research

By Jody Godoy

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Facebook parent Meta Platforms ( META )

put profit from its virtual-reality platform over

safety, two former researchers told a Senate panel on

Tuesday.

Former Meta user experience researcher Cayce Savage said the

company shut down internal research showing Meta knew children

were using its VR products and being exposed to sexually

explicit material.

"Meta cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the safety

or use of its products," Savage said at 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 company's chatbots to "engage a

child in conversations that are romantic or sensual."

"Does it surprise you that they would allow their chatbot to

engage in these conversations with children?" Senator Marsha

Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, asked former Meta Reality

Labs researcher Jason Sattizahn, who also testified at the

hearing on Tuesday.

"No, not at all," he said.

Meta has previously said the examples reported by Reuters

were inconsistent with the company's policies and had been

removed.

Savage and Sattizahn are part of a group of current and

former Meta employees whose whistleblower claims were first

reported by the Washington Post on Monday.

Researchers were told not to investigate harms to children

using its VR technology so that it could claim ignorance of the

problem, Savage said. Savage encountered instances of children

being bullied, sexually assaulted and asked for nude photographs

in the course of her work, she said.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement 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 at the hearing that the whistleblower

accounts further underline the need for Congress to pass the

Kids Online Safety Act, a bill she co-sponsored which the Senate

passed last year but which failed in the U.S. House of

Representatives.