Jason Sattizahn
Whistleblowers & Insiders · Meta
Former Meta VR researcher who told the Senate the company buried its own child-safety findings on virtual-reality headsets.
Jason Sattizahn worked as a researcher on Meta's virtual-reality products before coming forward, alongside fellow former researcher Cayce Savage, about how the company handled internal child-safety research. In a September 2025 Senate hearing titled "Hidden Harms," the two described findings on risks to younger VR users that they said Meta did not act on or surface. Their joint testimony extended the pattern seen in earlier Meta whistleblower cases — internal research on harm to young users, followed by inaction — into the newer terrain of virtual-reality headsets and immersive platforms.
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WORKS IN THE LIBRARY (8)
TESTIMONY
Hidden Harms: Senate Judiciary Testimony of Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage on Meta's VR Child-Safety Research
Two former Meta researchers, Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, gave sworn testimony to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee describing internal research they say Meta narrowed, edited, or deleted rather than act on. Sattizahn, who worked on VR safety research from 2022 to 2024, told senators internal surveys linked VR use to reports of harassment and unwanted sexual contact, with women reporting these more often than men. Savage, who led Meta's VR youth-safety research from 2022 to 2023, said children using VR headsets were, per her research, exposed to bullying, unwanted sexual contact, and adult content, and that she was discouraged from studying how widespread this was. Both described a legal-review process they said limited what safety findings could be shared. TechKids Foundation cites this testimony as an association between passive, unsupervised VR use and documented risk to minors — not proof that any one platform causes harm.
Questions for the Record: Jason Sattizahn's Follow-Up Responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee
Following the September 2025 "Hidden Harms" hearing, Jason Sattizahn submitted written answers to follow-up questions from Senators Blackburn and Coons. In them, he disputed Meta's public rebuttal of the whistleblowers' disclosure, described a company review process in which legal staff could require researchers to narrow survey questions or withhold findings about harm to VR users, and said internal documents he had shared with Congress showed that a large share of users in some VR social spaces were under the platform's stated minimum age. He also described two internal decisions to lower the minimum age for Meta's VR apps, which he said were discussed internally as ways to grow the user base. Sattizahn proposed specific transparency and independent-research measures Congress could require of Meta. TechKids Foundation cites this as testimony-based evidence of policy gaps around age verification in VR products, not as an independently audited count of affected children.
STUDIES
SiliconANGLE: Meta Whistleblowers Claim Company Buried Information on Child Safety
Published the day before the "Hidden Harms" Senate hearing, this SiliconANGLE report previewed the disclosure by Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, quoting Sattizahn's allegation that Meta knew minors were using its platforms and treated their continued engagement as a business asset, and that internal teams would, in his words, "erase data" the company found inconvenient. The article also carries Meta spokesperson Dani Lever's on-record denial, in which she said the whistleblowers' claims were "stitched together to fit a predetermined and false narrative" and pointed to nearly 180 internally approved VR safety studies since 2022. TechKids Foundation cites this as contemporaneous reporting documenting both the whistleblowers' claims and Meta's rebuttal, in the interest of a balanced record.
NBC News: Former Meta Employees Say They Saw Child Abuse in VR Before Company Blocked Research
Reporting by NBC News' David Ingram and Julie Tsirkin covers the sworn testimony and underlying disclosure of former Meta researchers Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, who told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that Meta's virtual-reality products exposed children to bullying, unwanted sexual contact, and solicitation, and that the company restricted or erased research documenting it. The article describes a specific account in which Sattizahn said a research team's findings — that children in Germany had been sexually solicited on a Meta VR platform — were ordered deleted, and quotes Sattizahn characterizing Meta's internal posture as prioritizing engagement because, in his words, "kids drive engagement." The piece also carries Meta's on-record denial. TechKids Foundation cites this reporting as journalism corroborating the whistleblowers' association between passive, underage VR use and documented risk — not as a finding of legal liability.
Senator Chris Coons' Legislative Response to the Sattizahn–Savage Testimony
Following Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage's testimony at the September 2025 "Hidden Harms" hearing, Senator Chris Coons published a statement describing their disclosure and connecting it to pending oversight measures: the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, which he co-leads and which would create mechanisms for independent research into platform harms; the AI Whistleblower Protection Act; and additional transparency legislation aimed at AI platforms. Coons argued that large technology platforms should not be left to grade their own homework on child-safety risk. TechKids Foundation cites this as a documented legislative response that names the whistleblowers' testimony as its basis — not as evidence that any of the cited bills has since become law.
Fairplay: 'Turning Up the Heat on Meta' — FTC Complaint Following Sattizahn and Savage Testimony
Children's-advocacy organization Fairplay published an account of attending the September 2025 Senate hearing at which Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage testified about Meta's handling of internal VR child-safety research, and announced that it had separately filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging Meta knowingly allowed underage children onto its Horizon Worlds VR platform in violation of children's-privacy law, supported by a sworn statement from another former Meta employee. The post frames the whistleblowers' testimony as part of the evidentiary basis for its continued advocacy for the Kids Online Safety Act. TechKids Foundation cites this as a documented policy/advocacy outcome tied to the hearing, not as confirmation that the FTC has taken enforcement action.
Whistleblower Aid Case Study: Exposing Meta's Cover-Up of Child Harm in Its Virtual Reality
Whistleblower Aid, the legal-aid organization that represented Jason Sattizahn and Cayce Savage in their disclosure, published a case-study summary of their September 2025 Senate testimony alongside excerpts from each of their written statements. The organization describes six current and former Meta researchers, including Sattizahn and Savage, disclosing that Meta repeatedly narrowed, edited, or deleted internal research documenting children — some reported to be as young as ten — being exposed to grooming, unwanted sexual contact, and other harm on its platforms, including virtual reality. The page also reports that a bipartisan group of ten senators, led by Senators Blackburn and Blumenthal, subsequently asked Meta's CEO to turn over internal research on underage use following the testimony. TechKids Foundation cites this as the representing organization's own record of the disclosure and its immediate legislative follow-up.