A former Meta engineering director who has testified before Congress about child safety on Instagram told jurors Wednesday that the company took a 'don't ask, don't tell' approach towards children under 13 using its platforms.
Arturo Béjar, who worked on safety issues at Meta, said he found 'tens of thousands' of children under 13 on Instagram during his research and that it was 'common knowledge' within the company that young children were using the platform.
Béjar also told the federal trial in Oakland, California, that Meta prioritised profits and user engagement when designing its products, while safety was treated as 'an afterthought'.
His testimony forms part of a case brought by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which accuses Meta of contributing to youth mental health problems and collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent. Meta has rejected the claims.
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' on Under-13 Users
Béjar said Meta's attitude towards children under 13 on Instagram was 'don't ask, don't tell'. Meta requires users to be at least 13 to create an account, in line with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.
Despite the company's stated efforts to identify and remove children under 13, Béjar said his research found 'tens of thousands' of them on Instagram. He also said it was 'common knowledge' at Meta that children that young were using the platform.
Béjar said Meta had sophisticated systems capable of detecting fake accounts, but claimed there were 'no goals, no metrics' for detecting and checking the ages of users suspected of being under 13.
The testimony came during the second day of a federal trial in Oakland, California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are seeking changes to the experiences offered on Facebook and Instagram, along with financial damages that could potentially include billions of dollars in penalties.
The lawsuit accuses Meta of knowingly designing features that addict children to its platforms and concealing the harms from the public. It also alleges that the company routinely collected data from children under 13 without their parents' consent.
Meta has rejected the claims. Its lawyer Paul Schmidt told jurors that the company believes it has a responsibility to act on issues involving teen mental health and social media, including working with teenagers and parents.
Béjar Says Safety Was an 'Afterthought'
Béjar worked at Facebook from 2009 to 2015 and later returned as a contractor between 2019 and 2021 to work on safety issues. He testified before Congress in 2023 about social media and the teen mental health crisis.
On Wednesday, Béjar said employee performance reviews and compensation for people working on user-facing products were largely focused on user numbers and the amount of time people spent using those products.
'In that context, safety was an afterthought,' he said.
Béjar also pointed to features he described as having been designed for adults but being 'inherently unsafe for teenagers'. These included video autoplay, which he said could expose teenagers to harmful videos without them actively selecting them.
He also highlighted counters showing likes, views, comments and follower numbers. Child development experts have noted that teenagers are more susceptible to social comparison than adults, according to the testimony presented in the case.
Béjar also criticised Meta's 'Take a Break' feature, introduced in 2021. He described it as a tool that was 'designed to fail' because users have to turn it on themselves.
'A safety tool has to be on by default,' Béjar said.
He argued that users could also dismiss the feature with a tap, saying Meta would not make it so easy to swipe away if it were serious about encouraging people to take a break.
