Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the parents of children who killed themselves after being subjected to online sexual exploitation during a US Senate hearing on Wednesday. Evan Spiegel offered condolences to parents whose children obtained deadly illegal drugs via Snapchat. The words were too little, too late for their intended audience, though. The grieving guardians expressed only frustration with the social media CEOs’ responses to their plight and to questions from members of Congress.
“I’m not happy with the answers the CEOs are giving. They can’t give a straight answer. Not even ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” said Tammy Rodriguez, the mother of Selena Rodriguez, who was 11 when she died by suicide three years ago after being solicited for sexually exploitative content by strangers on Instagram and Snapchat.
Dozens of mourning parents attended Wednesday’s Senate judiciary committee hearing, Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis, many of them holding photographs of the children who died after falling prey to abusers on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
“I am disgusted listening to them. All I care about is the kids are protected and the companies are held accountable,” Rodriguez said.
Toney Roberts’ daughter Englyn was 14 when she killed herself after viewing harmful content on Instagram, including a video of a mock hanging. The video is still on Instagram more than three years after Englyn’s death. Roberts showed it to the Guardian.
“It is hard being here,” said Roberts, who had travelled from Louisiana to attend the hearing. “[The CEOs] are not answering the questions. The longer these companies are allowed to operate like this, the more children will get hurt. Something needs to happen now.”
Executives in attendance were Meta CEO Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Spiegel, X (formerly Twitter) CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Discord CEO Jason Citron. Members of Congress questioned them for four hours, in exchanges that became heated on several occasions.
At the start of the hearing, each CEO gave a speech that outlined their position on their company’s competence in protecting children online. Zuckerberg drew criticism from the parents for using his opening remarks to deny any relationship between social media usage and declines in mental health.
“The existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health,” Zuckerberg told the crowded room.
Lori Schott, a bereaved mother from Colorado, said she cried when she heard Zuckerberg’s comments.
“They lack a moral compass; it is profits over the kids. Where there’s money, there’s greed,” she said.
Schott’s daughter Annalee was 18 when she died by suicide. According to Schott, Analee’s mental health deteriorated after consuming content on depression, anxiety and suicide that was recommended to her on TikTok and Instagram.
“She even saw a live suicide on the ‘For You’ page on TikTok. You can’t unsee that. It ate at her internally,” said Schott.
In the culmination of a tense exchange, Josh Hawley, the Republican senator, invited Zuckerberg to apologize to the parents of victims in the audience, many of whom held photos of children they say died or suffered because of his platform. Zuckerberg stood up to face the families and offered his condolences.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” he said. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.” In response to Laphonza Butler, a Democratic senator, Spiegel later said: “I’m so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies.”
Yet Zuckerberg’s words seemed hollow to John DeMay, whose 17-year-old son Jordan killed himself in 2022 after falling victim to a scam soliciting him for sexual images over Instagram.
“The apology was forced,” said DeMay. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s not going to bring my son back.”
