During the meeting with the CEOs of Meta, Snap, Discord, X and TikTok, many senators told stories of families whose children had committed suicide due to online abuse.
Senator Lindsay Graham “Mr. Zuckerberg, I know you don’t want to be this way, you and the other companies that are standing up to us, but you have blood on your hands,” he said. This heavy sentence was accompanied by the applause of those present in the meeting.
“Mr. Zuckerberg… you have blood on your hands”
The strictness of US lawmakers on social networks has increased in the last year. The US Congress has held many hearings, but almost none of them have led to the approval of the new law.
Both parties in the US Congress want to pass new laws to keep children safe online. Currently, about 12 bills focusing on children’s online safety are under consideration, and none of them have become laws.
In part of the meeting, Mark Zuckerberg said that the parental control system and user age detection is something that should be managed by the owners of the app stores, namely Apple and Google, not Meta.
The company managed by Mark Zuckerberg in 2023 faced a lot of criticism due to the psychological effects of Instagram and Facebook on young people. There have been rumors that Meta might release a version of Instagram specifically for kids, but Zuckerberg told lawmakers that such a version is not on the way.
