Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized directly to the parents of children who were harmed by social media during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about online child safety on Wednesday (January 31).
The moment occurred while Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri was grilling Zuckerberg over his claims about the lack of scientific evidence showing that social media is harmful to children's mental health.
After questioning Zuckerberg about an internal study that found Instagram had a negative impact on the mental health of teenage girls, Hawley called on Zuckerberg to apologize to the families sitting directly behind him.
"They're here. You're on national television … Would you like to apologize for what you've done to these good people?" Hawley asked.
Zuckerberg then stood up, turned around, and addressed the parents.
"I'm sorry for everything you have all been through," he said. "No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much, and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer."
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel also offered a brief apology to families after being questioned by Senator Laphonza Butler of California about the accessibility of illegal drugs on Snapchat.
"There are a number of parents whose children have been able to access illegal drugs on your platform. What do you say to those parents?" she asked.
Spiegel did not stand and address the parents directly but did offer an apology.
"I'm so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies. We work very hard to block all search terms related to drugs on our platform. We proactively look for and detect drug-related content. We remove it from our platform, preserve the evidence, and then we refer it to law enforcement for action. We've worked together with nonprofits and with families on education campaigns because the scale of the fentanyl epidemic is extraordinary. Over 100,000 people lost their lives last year, and we believe people need to know that one pill can kill. That campaign was viewed more than 260 million times on Snapchat."