The Big Story Is it time for Canada to toughen up its social media laws for youth?
Apr 6, 2026
Arturo Bejar, former Meta security and child-safety executive turned whistleblower who exposed harms to teens, shares vivid memories of his daughter’s online harassment. He discusses addictive design features like infinite scroll and autoplay. He outlines missed leadership responses, courtroom testimony, and practical product fixes and regulation ideas to protect young users.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Whistleblower Returned After Daughter Faced Sexual Harassment
- Arturo Bejar returned to Instagram in 2019 after his 14-year-old daughter faced unwanted nudes, sexual invitations, bullying, and misogyny on the platform.
- His daughter's experiences revealed to him that problems affecting a few users likely affected tens of millions globally, prompting him to speak up internally.
Fundamental Safety Features Were Missing
- Instagram lacked basic guardrails: no easy way for teens to report unwanted sexual advances and no features to address problematic or addictive use.
- Bejar's team survey of hundreds of thousands revealed staggering rates of harm and distressing recommended content of sexual violent nature.
Company Data Vastly Understated Teen Harm
- Bejar presented data showing teen harms were massively underreported publicly: issues were 100 to 400 times higher than Meta's public statements.
- He emailed Mark Zuckerberg with the findings but received no reply, showing leadership disengagement.