Des Moines Sun

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), along with Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, seeking answers regarding the company’s alleged emotional targeting of children and its reported noncompliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

In April, Grassley wrote to Zuckerberg about allegations that Meta targeted advertisements at teenagers based on their emotional state. He also released text messages between former Facebook employees discussing these issues. The senators stated, “To date, Meta has failed to fully and completely respond to Senator Grassley’s letter, but it has not questioned the accuracy of the records he made public … Meta’s failures to protect teens from exploitation on its platforms is not isolated to targeted advertisements.”

The senators referenced a draft presentation describing a 2014 Facebook study that analyzed how 13- to 24-year-olds responded emotionally on social media and what triggers influenced them to share brand-related content. The audience for this research reportedly included influencers, agencies, brands, sales teams, and customers.

Concerns were also raised about Meta’s compliance with COPPA. According to a Federal Trade Commission complaint filed in April 2025, Meta allegedly allowed children under age 13 to register adult accounts for its Horizon Worlds VR platform and moved forward with expanding access for children as young as 10 without sufficient parental consent measures for data collection. The complaint further claims that Meta collected significant personal information from children under 13 without parental consent—actions which would violate COPPA.

The senators said in their letter: “The complaint alleges that, as a result, Meta has unlawfully collected data on children and exposed children to ‘racism, sexual harassment, bullying, and child endangerment.’ If Meta disagrees with these publicly filed assertions, we welcome an explanation.”

Additional documents obtained by Grassley’s office include a draft PowerPoint presentation from Facebook titled Global Youth Study – Overview of Findings. This study examined responses from individuals aged 13–24 regarding social media engagement and branded content sharing behavior.

Grassley's office also cited reporting from 2021 involving consultant Arturo Bejar's research on Instagram. According to Bejar's findings shared internally at Meta: “51% of Instagram users say they’ve had a ‘bad or harmful experience’ on the app within the previous week. And of those users who report harmful posts, only 2% have that content taken down. For teens, 21% said they’d been the target of bullying and 24% received unwanted sexual advances.”

Further reports surfaced in August 2025 indicating issues with artificial intelligence chatbots deployed by Meta allegedly engaging minors in inappropriate conversations.

The senators requested that Meta provide comprehensive responses by September 16, including details about studies mentioned above; actions taken toward COPPA compliance; user demographics for Horizon Worlds; safeguards against online abuse; current age restrictions; protections against exploitation on virtual reality platforms; and all policies related to generative AI models.