FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, November 3, 2023
Contacts:
David Monahan, Fairplay: [email protected]
Fairplay statement re: Wall Street Journal reporting on claims of Meta whistleblower, Arturo Bejar
BOSTON, MA — Friday, November 3, 2023 — The following statement can be attributed to Josh Golin, Executive Director, Fairplay:
“Arturo Bejar’s brave whistleblowing is yet more evidence that Meta not only knows Instagram’s design is harmful to young people, but it refuses to implement measures its own experts say could make the platform safer for children and teens. It’s beyond the pale that Meta executives shrugged off their own research that every week, one in eight users under 16 receive unwelcome sexual advances.
Meta’s continual and blatant disregard for children’s wellbeing is exhibit A for why we need the Kids Online Safety Act. The bill’s duty of care would require social media companies to make the design changes they already know would reduce suicide, unwanted sexual advances, cyberbullying, eating disorders and mental health harms. With nearly half of the Senate signed on as cosponsors, KOSA is the best and surest way to ensure that companies like Meta no longer turn a blind eye to the preventable abuses and harms that young people suffer online.”
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