Dr. Jason Sattizahn, Cayce Savage, and Four Anonymous Whistleblowers

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Six Meta researchers came forward to expose how Meta repeatedly deleted or doctored internal safety research showing that children, some as young as ten, are being exposed to child grooming, sexual harassment, drugs and violence across its platforms, including its Virtual Reality products.

According to our brave clients, Meta’s leadership, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself, prioritized engagement over child safety. Researchers were pressured to stop asking questions and to bury evidence of child harm on its platforms. Leadership also repeatedly terminated approved projects, such as age verification, that would improve safety within its products.

With Whistleblower Aid support, two of our clients, Dr. Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, testified Sept. 9, 2025,  before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law at a hearing titled “Hidden Harms: Examining Whistleblower Allegations that Meta Buried Child Safety Research.” Their testimony uncovered Meta leadership’s “see-no-evil” strategy, which erases evidence of harm, silences researchers, and misleads the public and Congress about its actions to protect children online. After their bombshell testimony, a bipartisan group of 10 U.S. Senators, led by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), demanded that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg provide all internal research regarding safety risks to and prevalence of users under age 13 on its platforms.

Jason Sattizahn’s written statement to the U.S. Senate

“I worked at Meta from 2018 to 2024. During these six years, I witnessed data scandals, multiple disclosures about Meta’s disregard for user safety and children’s mental health, and mounting public pressure against Meta. I saw the company respond to these pressures by deliberately compromising internal processes, policies, and research to protect company profits over users.”

“… [W] hen Meta has been given repeated and frankly unearned opportunities to improve their product and take responsibility for suffering they have created, they have chosen to double down, deflect, and deceive. To hide evidence. To punish those doing the right thing. To disregard and disrespect government bodies like yours instead of working with you to make positive change.”

Casey Savage’s written statement to the U.S. Senate

“I worked at Meta from 2019 to 2023. In those four years, and most especially as I led research on youth safety in Virtual Reality, it became clear to me that Meta is uninterested in listening to their users or in prioritizing their safety.”

“Most importantly, Meta is aware that these children are being harmed in VR. In my time on the team, I quickly became aware that it was not uncommon for children in VR to experience bullying, sexual assault, to be solicited for nude photographs and sexual acts by pedophiles, to be regularly exposed to mature content like gambling and violence, and to participate in adult experiences like strip clubs and watching pornography with strangers.”