Mark Zuckerberg and Linda Yaccarino on defensive ahead of online child protection hearing

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The chief executives of five of the top social media platforms, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Linda Yaccarino of X, are striking a defensive posture ahead of a Wednesday hearing, where Congress will grill the leaders over their perceived failure to protect children online. 

The hearing before the Senate judiciary committee on Capitol Hill is set to tackle growing bipartisan concerns that the social media platforms expose younger users to child predators and groomers, and provide a marketplace for child pornography. The hearing will probably also explore growing concerns over a teen mental health crisis that some researchers and politicians have attributed to social media use. 

Several proposed pieces of federal legislation are in train that target the Silicon Valley groups, such as the controversial Kids Online Safety Act, which requires platforms to protect children from online harms.

The Senate and the House have so far failed to find consensus on the precise measures that should be taken. Bills such as the Kids Online Safety Act have faced pushback from the tech platforms and the trade groups that represent them. 

In pre-prepared testimony, Meta’s Zuckerberg called for lawmakers to instead mandate regulation requiring Apple and Google app stores to verify the age of younger users, and reiterated the long-standing assertion that the platform has introduced “more than 30” tools and features to protect children. 

“We’re also in favour of setting industry standards on age-appropriate content and limiting signals for advertising to teens to age and location, not behaviour,” Zuckerberg said, adding that the company was “ready to work with any member of this Committee who wants to discuss legislation in these areas”. 

According to her opening testimony, seen by the Financial Times, Yaccarino will insist that X,…