Former Meta director says Instagram FAILED to protect teen users

A former Meta employee testified before a Senate subcommittee earlier this month and revealed that Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, knew of the harassment and other harms affecting teenage users on its platforms but “failed to address them.”

Arturo Bejar worked on well-being for Instagram from 2019 to 2021. From 2009 to 2015, he said that he was a director of engineering for Facebook’s Protect and Care team. Bejar testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law at a hearing about social media and its impact on teen mental health.

In written remarks made available before the hearing, Bejar said he is testifying because the public and parents must “understand the true level of harm posed by these ‘products.'”

His shocking testimony follows a bipartisan push in Congress to pass legislation that would require social media platforms to provide parents with tools to protect young users online.

According to Bejar, his work at Meta was designed to influence the design of Facebook and Instagram in ways that would steer users “toward more positive behaviors and provide tools for young people to manage unpleasant experiences.”

Bejar told senators that he met regularly with senior executives at the company, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and that they seemed supportive of the work at the time. However, he said that eventually, the executives would often decide not to tackle the issue.

He cited an email from 2021 flagged to Zuckerberg and other top executives revealing that 51 percent of Instagram users had reported having a bad or harmful experience on the platform in the past seven days. The data also found that 24.4 percent of children aged 13 to 15 had reported receiving unwanted sexual advances on Instagram.

Bejar also said his own 16-year-old daughter has received misogynistic comments and obscene photos.

He also recounted that in one meeting, Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox discussed “precise statistics on teen harms off the top of his head.” However, Bejar said this was disappointing because it proved that even though they knew about the issues prevalent on Instagram, they did not act to protect teen users.

5 Tips for parents who want to help teenagers fight the negative side effects of social media

If your teenage children are online regularly, follow these tips to help protect them on social media:

Establish rules

A federal law, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, makes it illegal for children under 13 to have social media accounts. Additionally, new legislation is being proposed to protect minors’ information until they are 16 years old.

If you’re not familiar with the sites or apps your children are using, take the time to learn what th