A team of Meta researchers visiting a family in western Germany heard differing accounts about children’s experiences on the company’s virtual reality platform.
The mother said she kept her sons from interacting with strangers through the headsets. Her teenage son, however, interrupted to say he routinely met unfamiliar users and that adults had sexually propositioned his younger brother, who is under 10, on multiple occasions, according to two researchers who witnessed the exchange.
Four current and former Meta staffers have told Congress that the company’s legal team stepped in to influence or restrict studies that could have exposed safety risks for minors in VR. They say those interventions altered the scope and reporting of research into child protection on the platform.
Meta disputes those claims and has denied that its lawyers suppressed or improperly shaped research. The company says it takes user safety seriously and reviews internal processes as part of regular oversight.
The accounts, made public in congressional testimony, raise questions about how technology firms balance legal oversight with independent safety research, particularly when vulnerable users such as c...