Senators demand answers on Meta’s targeting of children
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and committee members Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are demanding answers from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg following new disclosures outlining the company’s efforts to target teenagers based on their emotional state and Meta’s reported failure to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
In April, Grassley sent a letter to Zuckerberg on the company’s alleged emotional targeting, and he also made public text messages between then-Facebook employees regarding those allegations.
“To date, Meta has failed to fully and completely respond to Senator Grassley’s letter, but it has not questioned the accuracy of the records he made public … Meta’s failures to protect teens from exploitation on its platforms is not isolated to targeted advertisements,” the senators said.
In their letter, the senators cite a draft presentation that describes a 2014 Facebook study analyzing the emotional behavior of 13- to 24-year-olds on social media, including what emotional triggers drive the spread of brand-based content.
The senators expressed additional concerns regarding Meta’s failure to protect children online, including failure to comply with COPPA.
According to a Federal Trade Commission complaint against Meta, the company allegedly allowed children under the age of 13 to register with adult accounts for the Horizon Worlds VR platform.
Then, Meta allegedly chose to move forward with plans to expand the platform to children as young as 10 without instituting appropriate safety measures to ensure child accounts required parental consent for data collection. It also alleges Meta has collected “vast amounts of personal information from children under 13 without parental consent,” which is in violation of COPPA.
“The complaint alleges that, as a result, Meta has unlawfully collected data on children and exposed children to ‘racism, sexual harassment, bullying, and child endangerment.’ If Meta disagrees with these publicly filed assertions, we welcome an explanation,” the senators continued.