PRESS STATEMENT -Meta’s VR Has Sexually Exploited Children, Says Meta Whistleblowers
 

WASHINGTON, DC (September 10, 2025) – Enough Is Enough^® (EIE) said that Congress needs to hold Meta to account for egregious safety issues that have allowed children using Virtual Reality (VR) devices to be sexually exploited.

Two Meta whistleblowers testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. Cayce Savage, one of the whistleblowers, said that “Any child that is in a social space in VR will come in contact with or [be] directly expose[d] [to] something very inappropriate. … I see it every time I use the headset.” The whistleblowers also said that Meta suppressed their research about safety issues around children using VR devices. The Washington Post reported that while conducting research in Germany, Meta whistleblower Jason Sattizahn heard that a child under 10 was propositioned in VR numerous times, but his boss told him not to include that information in his report.

“The hearing confirmed every parent’s worst nightmare: if their children have used Meta’s VR devices, their children have likely been sexually exploited. This horrific news is not virtual, it is real. The whistleblowers testified that Meta has also actively suppressed its own research and findings that indicated children’s safety had been compromised while choosing profit over safety. As a multibillion dollar Big Tech giant, Meta must make a holistic paradigm shift to prioritize child online safety by implementing safer by design technologies and policies that put the innocence and dignity of children first,” said Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO, Enough Is Enough^®. 

“I am encouraged that the Senate has worked in a bi-partisan manner to advance policies to hold Meta and other tech platforms accountable and responsible. It's long overdue for Congress to expedite the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act, originally introduced three years ago by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), to ensure Meta and other tech companies prioritize online child safety. Our children’s lives are worth fighting for,” said Hughes, whose Washington Examiner op-ed, The $11 billion reason Big Tech won’t protect our children, pointed out the real tragedies that highlight the stakes of Congressional inaction on child online safety.

During the hearing Sen. Blackburn said, “We’ve seen a national movement of parents, legislators, whistleblowers and children that have said ‘enough is enough.’ Our children are more precious than the interest of depraved big tech CEOs and that Congress must pass the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act.”