A group of Republican Senators is pressing Meta for more information on the company’s child protection efforts and whether it targeted teenage users with content geared towards their emotional state.
Senators Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), and Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) wrote a letter Tuesday to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding more transparency and documents related to Meta’s approach to child protection.
Grassley asked Meta to fully comply with an oversight request he sent earlier this year addressing Meta’s alleged targeted advertisements towards children depending on their emotional state. From a different source, Grassley obtained a draft PowerPoint deck developed in 2014 that includes a Facebook study on the emotional behavior of young social media users. The PowerPoint slide, Global Youth Study – Overview of Findings, shows that Meta tested the impact of emotional triggers on the spread of social media content.
The PowerPoint provided a detailed breakdown of youth behavior online, but it did not indicate that Meta developed any kind of tool to exploit the emotions of social media users. Nonetheless, Grassley asserts that Facebook’s 2014 study contradicts its 2017 statement denying that it created tools to target people based on their emotions.
“We continue to engage with Chairman Grassley’s office. As we have previously said publicly, we did not and do not offer tools to target people based on their emotional state,” a Meta spokesperson told National Review.
The GOP Senators’ letter cites 2021 reporting on Instagram survey data that found 51 percent of teens had a harmful experience on Instagram in the past week, with 21 percent of teens reporting bullying and 24 percent reporting unwanted sexual advances. Meta has taken significant steps to improve the teenage experience on Instagram through the creation of parental tools and teen accounts. The teen accounts are a new type of Instagram account with enhanced protections for young users on the photo-sharing platform.
The letter goes on to cite the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint against Meta for alleged failure to comply with child safety laws by allowing children to make adult accounts on its Horizon Worlds virtual reality platform. The FTC accuses Meta of allegedly collecting data on children illegally and facilitating their exposure to racism, sexual harassment, and other harmful forms of content. Meta is contesting the FTC’s allegations and has fought the agency in antitrust litigation.
Lastly, the letter references a recent scandal where Meta’s artificial intelligence chatbot appeared to send intimate and suggestive messages to underage users. Meta immediately placed temporary restrictions on its AI bots to prevent them from responding to teens if they bring up self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, or potentially inappropriate romantic conversations. In addition, Meta is limiting teen access to certain AI characters.
“As our community grows and technology evolves, we’re continually learning about how young people may interact with these tools and strengthening our protections accordingly,” Meta said in an announcement last week.
“As we continue to refine our systems, we’re adding more guardrails as an extra precaution — including training our AIs not to engage with teens on these topics, but to guide them to expert resources, and limiting teen access to a select group of AI characters for now.”
Hawley already launched an investigation into Meta’s chatbot and took credit for Meta’s decision to adjust its AI policies. Likewise, Blackburn has championed bipartisan legislation to increase safeguards for children on social media platforms.
The GOP Senators sent Meta a list of questions about the measures it has taken to protect children and comply with restrictions on collecting their data. Grassley, Blackburn, and Hawley also requested records on Meta’s development of artificial intelligence and alleged targeted advertising of children based on their emotions.