Senators demand answers from Meta over delay in default-private settings for teen accounts

A bipartisan group of United States senators has formally pressed Meta for an explanation after court filings revealed the company considered earlier safety changes for minors but delayed their implementation. Lawmakers point to unredacted internal documents and testimony that appear to show a decision-making trade-off between user engagement and earlier protections for teenage accounts. The senators are seeking details on who within the company influenced those choices, what internal analyses were considered, and whether any research that identified user harms was ever curtailed or hidden. The filings also raised questions about enforcement thresholds for accounts tied to sexual exploitation and trafficking, pointing to an internal metric that became a focal point of the inquiry. Meta moved Instagram teen accounts to private-by-default in September 2024 and later extended similar settings to other properties, but the newly surfaced timeline suggests those changes were considered years earlier. The congressional letter demands documents and answers and sets a near-term date for the company’s response, signaling appetite for rapid clarification. This inquiry sits at the intersection of litigation over platform harms and active policy debates about how companies balance growth incentives with user safety. If the senators’ concerns are substantiated, regulators may press for stricter transparency about internal safety research and for procedural safeguards that prevent business objectives from overriding harm mitigation. The reputational consequences are immediate: claims that safety interventions were delayed to protect engagement will amplify scrutiny from both lawmakers and the public. Technically, the episode exposes gaps in governance between product, research, and safety teams, and underscores the need for clear decision logs and escalation paths when research identifies risks. Firms facing similar questions will likely intensify documentation practices, formalize review processes, and re-evaluate enforcement policies that permit many violations before remediating accounts. Meta’s response to the congressional deadline will determine whether the inquiry remains a letter exchange or escalates into hearings, regulatory actions, or legislative changes. The matter is thus both a legal and a governance test for how large platforms manage children’s privacy and safety amid competing commercial pressures.