Ex-Meta Safety Expert Testifies: My Teen Daughter Was Targeted on Instagram
A former Meta Platforms safety expert testified on Tuesday that his 14-year-old daughter received unwanted sexual messages and requests for explicit images from strangers on Instagram, an experience he described as shocking and which he says opened his eyes to the dangers young users face on the platform.
Arturo Bejar, who spent six years working on child safety tools at Facebook before leaving in 2015, told a jury in a federal court in Oakland, California, that he had not fully understood the scale of threats to young users until his daughter joined Instagram. The trial, which began this week, is the first of its kind involving a coalition of state attorneys general accusing Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to encourage compulsive use among minors while collecting data from children under 13, in violation of federal law.
Bejar testified that during his time at the company, executives were aware of “significant harms” to young people but repeatedly failed to implement changes or introduce features that would have a meaningful impact. “Young people, in particular, were experiencing harm at high rates and they weren't getting the attention, investigation, support or remediation that they needed,” he said.
The stakes are high for Meta. If the company loses, it could face financial penalties ranging from $193 billion to $1.4 trillion, along with court orders that might force changes in how its platforms operate. Meta has denied wrongdoing, saying it has continuously improved tools to protect young users and called the proposed penalties “outlandish.”
Bejar first joined Facebook in 2009 as a manager overseeing safety but left in 2015 to care for his teenage children. After his daughter's experience on Instagram in 2019, he returned to Meta as an independent contractor on the platform's “well-being” team. He left the company for good in 2021, the same year former product manager Frances Haugen revealed internal documents showing that Meta had long known about the negative effects of its platforms on young people, particularly girls struggling with body image.
During cross-examination on Wednesday, Meta's attorney Brian Stekloff pressed Bejar on his initial role, suggesting he was well-positioned to address safety issues during his employment. “You weren't able to solve every safety issue, correct?” Stekloff asked. Bejar responded, “Harm is not a mathematical equation that you solve to get to zero.”
Stekloff also questioned Bejar about his daughter's social media activity, noting that when she was 16, she created a public Instagram account to post about her passion for cars. “Knowing everything that you talked about at length yesterday and this morning, understanding the good and the bad, you consciously allowed her to open this account?” Stekloff said. Bejar acknowledged that he and his daughter dealt with instances of abuse as they arose, saying, “My job as a parent was to support her to deal with that.”
Meta had sought to bar Bejar from testifying in this case, arguing that he violated evidence rules by using auto-deleting messaging apps to communicate with former Meta employees. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied that request on the eve of the trial, allowing Bejar to take the stand.
Bejar has emerged as a key witness in legal actions against Meta and other social media platforms. He testified in two previous trials against Meta in Los Angeles and New Mexico, both ending in verdicts against the company. He also testified for four days in an ongoing trial against Meta in Tennessee. In 2023, he appeared before the US Congress to share his concerns about child safety on social media platforms.
The current trial in Oakland is being closely watched as it could set a precedent for how courts view social media companies' responsibilities toward young users. Meta maintains that it has invested heavily in safety measures and parental controls, and that many of the harms described by witnesses are not unique to its platforms.
