Statement on Meta child online exploitation curriculum

Below is a statement from Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin in response to Meta’s announcement that it is launching an education curriculum to deal with the issue of child online exploitation.

Statement from Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin:

If Meta knows how to spot child predators, it should remove them from its platforms, instead of asking children to keep its platforms safe.

If Mark Zuckerberg and other Big Tech CEOs did their job, we wouldn’t need a Safer Internet Day in the first place.

And if Meta hadn’t spent millions on lobbying last year to help kill the Kids Online Safety Act, then our children would have true protections against sextortion, grooming and other online harms that have claimed the lives of so many young people.

This announcement is just another cynical ploy by Meta to stall the legislation that families need to keep our kids safe online. An educational curriculum cannot take the place of federal regulation. And children cannot be expected to take on Meta’s own responsibility to keep its platforms safe.

If Meta really wants to stop child online exploitation, it must stop blocking the Kids Online Safety Act. On this Safer Internet Day, that’s the announcement we need from Meta.

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