A former Meta safety leader told a federal court that protecting young users was often secondary to growth and engagement. For parents, the testimony is one more reason not to rely on platform safeguards alone.
Most parents already know how hard social media is to manage. The endless scroll, constant notifications and personalized recommendations are built to keep people engaged.
This week, a former Meta engineering director testified in a federal trial in Oakland, offering a rare look at how child-safety decisions were allegedly handled inside the company behind Facebook and Instagram.
Arturo Bejar, who worked on safety at Meta and later on Instagram’s teen well-being efforts, told the court that safety was often treated as secondary to growth.
“If Mark makes something a priority, mountains move in months,” Bejar testified, referring to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to Reuters.
Bejar said some safety features were easy to ignore because they were not turned on by default. He also testified that Meta had the technology to identify many accounts suspected of belonging to children under 13 but did not aggressively act on that information, according to his testimony.
His testimony came in an ongoing trial brought by 29 states. Meta disputes the allegations and says it has invested heavily in tools and protections for young users.
Why parents should pay attention
Bejar’s concerns were also personal. He has said his own teenage daughter received unwanted sexual advances and misogynistic comments on Instagram. In 2021, he emailed Zuckerberg and other Meta executives about harmful experiences teens were reporting on the platform.
The lesson for families is not that every child on social media will be harmed. It is that parents should not assume a platform will always make the safest choice for their child.
When safety settings are optional, hard to find or easy to turn off, much of the responsibility falls back on families.
Meta, for its part, has expanded Teen Accounts and its Family Center, including stronger privacy and messaging protections, content controls, time-management features and parental supervision. These tools help, especially when parents actually set them up and review them.
But technology alone cannot replace conversations at home.
Five things parents can do now
1. Set up parental supervision together
If your child uses Instagram or Facebook, review Family Center with them. Explain the settings you are choosing and why. The goal is protection, not secret surveillance.
2. Check the settings yourself
Look at privacy, messaging, content restrictions, time limits and nighttime settings. Do not assume the defaults are right for your child.
3. Use device-level controls too
Apple Screen Time, Google Family Link and similar tools add another layer of protection. Platform and device controls work better together.
4. Ask about experiences, not only screen time
Instead of only asking, “How many hours were you online?” try:
Did anyone make you uncomfortable online today?
Is there anything you keep seeing that you wish would disappear?
Is a group chat or social media account stressing you out?
Those conversations may reveal more than a screen-time report.
5. Remember that you can wait
Turning 13 does not mean a child needs unrestricted social media. Parents can delay access, start with stronger supervision or keep safeguards in place longer. Children mature differently, and no single age works for every family.
Parents do not have to wait for the court
The trial may eventually answer larger questions about what Meta knew, how it responded and whether stronger protections should have come sooner.
In the meantime, we can use the tools available today, question the defaults and stay involved in what our children are experiencing online.
We can build the kind of relationship where, when something uncomfortable or frightening happens online, our children know they can tell us.
Has your family found a social media rule, setting or conversation that actually works? 3A1Z Stories welcomes parents and educators to share what they are learning.
