Promises and Empty Vows: Unmasking Inaction Towards Online Child Safety

Child exploitations, ignorance, and death. The corporate profiteers of social media companies were all accused of. On January 31, 2024, the US congressional hearing assembled the five alleged perpetrators from major tech companies: CEOs of Meta, X, Tiktok, Discord, and Snapchat. 

The hearing mostly addressed criticisms of the companies’ failure to keep online child-safety standards, heavily including lawsuits from parents and state attorneys general. In fact, the gravity of the situation was revealed by a shocking statistic from Facebook, revealing  that “nearly a quarter of all teens have received unwanted sexual advances on Instagram.”(Kerr)

 Meta and similar social media companies have responded to the pressure from lawmakers and parents, with half-hearted efforts and apologies. Evidently there were new tools from Meta, a child-safety update that included features such as hiding ‘age-inappropriate content’ discussing self-harm, eating disorders, nudity and restricted goods.(Duffy) Other companies have also claimed they are “investing in improvements on that front”, with no actual specifics on new policies and tools for a change (Kerr) However their actions only come across as ingenuine with internal data being released, especially of Meta CEO Zuckerberg refusing to hire employees to work on child safety.(Kerr) 

When confronted with their deceptive business practices by the family of child exploitation victims, they seem to respond with apologies that were of little consolation to the parents. Their willing ignorance on the issue was also evident in their unwillingness to sign four critical federal bills aimed to actively protect kids’ safety online. (Kerr) This reluctance only acts to fuel the argument on their profit-driven business approach, and will continue to draw allegations and scrutiny. With failures in constant moderation evident, any ineffective responses from the company representatives fall short in facing the seriousness of the issue, with lives at stake. The CEOs should be held accountable and expected to take genuine actions to protect vulnerable users, or risk alienating them and eroding trust in their platforms.