Hawley calls for prosecution against Meta on children’s safety failures

Senator Josh Hawley, R-MO., Called to “open the doors to the courtroom” so that the parents can continue Meta, accusing the founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg of having cheated on the congress after the depths of detailed defaults of children’s safety on the virtual reality platforms (VR) of the company.

Two former Meta researchers declared Tuesday in a panel of the Senate that the company buried evidence of children’s damage to virtual reality, killed age verification studies and left IA chatbots flirting with children, which prompted bipartite thrust to adopt measures protecting minors online.

“The affirmations at the heart of this hearing are absurd; they are based on internal documents disclosed selectively which have been chosen specifically to create a false story,” said a spokesperson for Meta.

“The truth is that there has never been a general ban on carrying out research with young people and, since the beginning of 2022, Meta has approved nearly 180 studies related to reality laboratories on issues such as young people and well-being.”

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A Meta Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset during an overview of the Meta Store media in Burlingame, California, May 4, 2022. (David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Cayce Savage and Jason Sattizahn testified before the Senate, both former Meta researchers.

Sattizahn said that Meta has regularly prioritized commitment and profit on security – especially for children – and manipulated or erased research showing damage.

He said that despite attempts to limit data collection, studies in studies could manage the endangered products of the company.

Germany has prohibited Meta’s virtual reality sales once on data processing problems; After sales resumed in 2022, Sattizahn was sent to carry out research there.

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Visitors walk in front of the meta-Panneau at its head office in Menlo Park, California, December 29, 2022. (Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu agency via Getty Images)

He said he understood that Meta was trying to show that his VR headsets were sure for the Germans.

But when research has discovered that minor children using Meta VR in Germany has been subjected to requests for sexual acts, naked photos and other acts to which children should never be exposed, Sattizahn Meta alleged demanded that all the evidence is erased.

“My research has always revealed emotional and psychological damage, especially women who have been sexually requested, assaulted or worse,” he said. “In response, Meta demanded that I change my research in the future so as not to collect this data on emotional and psychological damage.”

Savage testified that she had managed research on the security of young people in VR and also declared that the meta has prioritized the commitment to the security of children.

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Senator Josh Hawley, R-MO., Muated during a judicial subcommittee audience of the Senate on Meta’s virtual reality platforms on September 9, 2025, urging the congress to “open the doors of the courtroom” so that families can continue. (SOMODEVILLA chip)

She said that the company employed deletion tactics, including the change in reports, the demanding deletions and threatening jobs.

Hawley asked Savage why it was important for Meta to have children under the age of 13 using virtual reality. She told him that the children led the household appliances to adopt the household, which means more money for the meta.

“So, these are benefits at the end of the day,” Hawley told Savage while asking for clarification on the question of whether Meta will do anything for a profit, in particular by exposing children to life -sexual abuses.

“When I was doing research to identify the damage to which the children were confronted with VR, which I had to be sneaky because legal would not let me do, I identified that Roblox, the VR application, was used by coordinated pedophile rings,” said Savage. “They installed striptease clubs and paid children to undress.”

She added that Robux could be converted into real money.

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Roblox’s logo. During the hearing, the denunciator Cayce Savage allegedly alleged that the VR application on metadata had been exploited by the predators and said that she had warned Meta against welcoming him. (Getty Images)

Savage said that she had reported the question to Meta, saying that in no cases, Meta should host the Roblox application on the helmet.

“You can now download it from their application store,” she said.

Later, under questioning, Savage declared to the panel that she considered that any child in a social VR space will come into contact or will be directly exposed to something inappropriate.

“She said that each child who goes to the platform will be 100% exposed to sexual children’s abuse equipment. Everyone,” Hawley told Fox News Digital Tuesday evening. “I just come back to the fact that we have to protect our children.

“It cannot be that if you connect as a child, you are likely to be sexually abused, and that’s what witnesses have said today. If you are online, if you are more on their virtual reality program platform, you will be sexually abused. It was their testimony.”

Hawley called Zuckerberg for testifying on January 31, 2024, that Meta did not allow people under the age of 13 on the service.

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Senator Josh Hawley accused the meta-PDG Mark Zuckerberg (photo) of deceiving the congress about users under 13 on the company’s platforms. Meta described the claims of “nonsense” denunciators. (Matt McClain / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

During his testimony from last year, the CEO said that anyone under the age of 13 would be withdrawn from the service and, in response to another question, Zuckerberg said Meta did not want users under the age of 13.

Hawley said Zuckerberg had misleaded the Americans with this testimony, pointing to the reporters who said that users under the age of 13 are skipping on the platform.

“I do not see how you can square what he told us under oath last year with what these reproductors said today,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “But that is true for many of his statements. I mean,” he said repeatedly, whether it was the security protocols that Facebook has set up, this is not true.

“Whether concerning their work in China, he said:” Oh, we are not working in China. “It is not true. It is not true.

Hawley said he called Zuckerberg to testify again, although he heard that Meta was not interested.

Senator Hawley accused the meta-PDG Mark Zuckerberg to deceive the Congress on users under 13 and to put pressure for rapid responsibility. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, included via Getty Images)

In the end, Hawley said, it was time to “open the doors to the courtroom” so that victims and families can continue Meta for having failed to protect children.

“It is quite clear for me that it is time to allow parents and victims to continue this business,” he said. “They must be able to appear in court and head for a jury and keep this business responsible, and it starts by Mark Zuckerberg. There must be responsibility. We must open the doors of the courtroom and allow victims to have their day in court.”

Earlier this year, Hawley said that he had advanced legislation through the judicial committee which would allow victims of sexual abuse of online children to prosecute Facebook or any major technology company where damages occur.

“I do not think that we will see real changes in these companies until it becomes the law and that parents and victims can enter the court and keep these responsible persons,” he said. “The main thing is that we have to protect our children. I mean, they earn money by flying the innocence of our children.”

Meta told Fox News Digital that the company form its artificial intelligence robots not to respond to teenagers on self -control, suicide, disorders and potentially inappropriate romantic conversations, whatever the content. The company also works to limit access to teenagers to a selected group of IA characters, “for the moment”.

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Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Closed the meeting by inviting anyone from Meta to testify or challenge what has been said.

“I think they see that there is really bipartite anger, not only with Meta, but with these other social media platforms and virtual reality platforms and chatbots that intentionally harm our children,” she said. “It should stop. Fairly enough.”