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Parents of children lost to online harms left an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg outside Meta’s office in NYC, April 24, 2025.Image Credits:Rebecca Bellan
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Meta may have managed tokill a bipartisan billto protect children online , but parent of children who have suffered from on-line impairment are still putting pressure on social medium company to pace up .
On Thursday , 45 families who lost child to online harms — from sextortion to cyberbullying — held a watch outside one of Meta ’s Manhattan berth to abide by the memory of their kids and demand action and answerability from the company .
Many curry in white , holding blush wine , signs that read “ Meta profits , small fry pay the price , ” and framed photo of their idle child — a prospect that starkly contrasted with the otherwise sunny outflow daytime in New York City .
While each family ’s fib is unlike , the thread that holds them together is that “ they ’ve all been ignored by the technical school companies when they tried to reach out to them and alert them to what find to their kid , ” Sarah Gardner , CEO of youngster safety gadget advocacy Heat Initiative , one of the organiser of the upshot , tell TechCrunch .
One mother , Perla Mendoza , say her son give way of fentanyl poisoning after shoot drugs that he purchased off a dealer on Snapchat . She is one of many parents with similar stories who havefiled wooing against Snap , alleging the company did small to prevent illegal drug sales on the program before or after her boy ’s death . She find her son ’s monger posting images advertising hundreds of pills and reported it to Snap , but she read it take the companionship eight months to sag his account .
“ His drug dealer was betray on Facebook , too , ” Mendoza evidence TechCrunch . “ It ’s all plug in . He was doing the same thing on all those apps , [ including ] Instagram . He had multiple accounts . ”
The vigil follows recent testimony from whistleblower Sarah Wynn - Williams , who reveals howMeta targeted 13- to 17 - year - oldswith ads when they were feeling down or depressed . It also comes four year after The Wall Street Journal publishedThe Facebook Files , which show the company jazz that Instagram was toxic for teen girls ’ mental health despite downplaying the emergence in public .
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Thursday ’s event personal organizer , which also included advocacy groups ParentsTogether Action and Design It for Us , delivered anopen letteraddressed to Zuckerberg with more than 10,000 signatures . The letter demands that Meta quit promoting dangerous content to kids ( include sexualizing substance , racism , hate speech , content push disordered eating , and more ) ; prevent sexual marauder and other bad actors from using Meta platforms to reach nipper ; and provide transparent , debauched solution to kids ’ reports of tough content or interactions .
Isabella Stewart Gardner locate the alphabetic character on a pile of rosaceous nosegay that were placed outside Meta ’s function on Wanamaker Place as protesters chant , “ Build a time to come where tiddler are respected . ”
Over the past year , Meta has implemented new safeguards for children and teen across Facebook and Instagram , including working with law enforcement and other tech platforms to prevent small fry exploitation . Meta recently introducedTeen Accountsto Instagram , Facebook , and Messenger , which trammel who can contact a teen on the app and restricts the case of cognitive content the accounting holder can view . More recently , Instagram beganusing AI to find teenager lyingabout their age to get around safeguards .
“ We roll in the hay parents are concerned about their teens ’ having dangerous or inappropriate experiences online , ” Sophie Vogel , a Meta spokesperson , secern TechCrunch . “ It ’s why we significantly changed the Instagram experience for teenager with Teen Accounts , which were designed to come up to parents ’ top concerns . Teen Accounts have build - in protections that throttle who can contact teens and the content they see , and 94 % of parents say these are helpful . We ’ve also developed safety features to help prevent abuse , like warning teens when they ’re chatting to someone in another land , and recently work on with Childhelp to set in motion a first - of - its kind online safety syllabus , helping middle schoolers accredit potential online harm and cognise where to go for help . ”
Gardner says Meta ’s actions do n’t do enough to plug away the gaps in safety .
“ We ’ve had researchers go on and sign on as a 12- or 13 - twelvemonth - previous , and within a few minutes , they ’re getting really extremist , violent , or sexualized content , ” Gardner say . “ So it ’s clear not working , and it ’s not nearly enough . ”
Erle Stanley Gardner noted that Meta ’s recent change to itsfact - checking and content moderation policyin favour of community notes are a signal that the party is “ letting go of more responsibility , not leaning in . ”
Meta and its army of lobbyists also led the opposition to the Kids Online Safety Act , which betray to make it through Congress at the remainder of 2024 . The bill had been widely expect to pass in the House of Representatives after sailing through a Senate vote , and would have inflict rules on social media to foreclose the addiction and genial health harms the sites are wide agreed to cause .
“ I think what [ Mark Zuckerberg ] needs to see , and what the point of today is , is to show that parent are really broken about this , and not just the ones who ’ve lost their own tiddler , but other Americans who are waking up to this reality and thinking , ‘ I do n’t need Mark Zuckerberg make decisions about my child ’s online base hit , ’ ” Gardner pronounce .
This write up has been updated with additional information from Meta .
