New Delhi — A former Meta engineering director testified in U.S. federal court that Instagram took a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to children under 13, alleging the company prioritized engagement and growth over young users’ safety, according to multiple reports.
Arturo Bejar, who has previously testified before Congress on child safety, said during his second day on the witness stand that Meta largely measured employee performance and compensation using engagement metrics such as user numbers and time spent on its platforms.
“In that context, safety was an afterthought,” Bejar said, according to the reports.
He also testified that his research identified “tens of thousands” of children under 13 using Instagram and said it was “common knowledge” within the company that children below the platform’s minimum age were using the app.
The trial pits Meta against California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which are among 29 states that sued the technology company in 2023. The states allege Meta knowingly designed features that encouraged addictive use among children and contributed to a youth mental health crisis.
Bejar testified that Meta had sophisticated systems for detecting fake accounts but lacked comparable “goals or metrics” for employees to identify and verify users suspected of being under 13.
The lawsuit also alleges that Meta routinely collected data from children under 13 without parental consent, in violation of federal law.
Meta has denied the allegations and said evidence presented during the trial will show the company’s commitment to user safety.
Meta attorney Paul Schmidt said the case would address issues including teen mental health, social media and how young people use online platforms.
“Those are important issues, and they’re issues where Meta believes that it has a responsibility,” Schmidt said. “It has a responsibility to act on its own. It has a responsibility to try to work with teens and parents in partnership to try to address those questions.”
Bejar also criticized safety features introduced by Instagram, arguing they were not effective enough.
He said Instagram’s Take a Break feature, introduced in 2021, was designed in a way that limited its effectiveness because users had to enable it themselves and could easily dismiss prompts.
“A safety tool has to be on by default,” Bejar said, adding that a feature intended to encourage users to step away from the app should not be so easily dismissed. (Source: IANS)
