OREANDA-NEWS. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg rejected the accusations of his former employee Frances Haugen, who said in the US Senate that the company refused to take measures to reduce the harmful influence of social networks on children and adolescents. «We take serious care of issues such as safety, well-being and mental health», Zuckerberg said in a statement posted on his Facebook page. He stated that many of Haugen's statements «don't make any sense».

«At the heart of these charges is the idea that our priority is profit, not safety and well-being. This is simply not true», he stressed.

Zuckerberg also defended the plan to create a version of Instagram for children 10-12 years old, urging not to ignore the current state of things, but to create services that meet the needs of teenagers and ensure safety. «The reality is that young people are using technology», he stressed.

«We have spent the last 24 hours thinking about how we can strengthen our systems against this kind of failures», Zuckerberg said. He had asked the company's executives to do everything to demonstrate to the public the measures that Facebook is taking to ensure the safety of users.

37-year-old Haugen, speaking at a Senate hearing on October 5, accused Facebook's management of being aware of the psychological problems that arise in teenagers who actively use social networks, especially Instagram. At the same time, the company does not take any measures to combat the harm caused, but on the contrary, encourages the growth of teenager's involvement in the use of social networks, said Haugen, who worked at Facebook for about two years. According to her, the company puts profit above user safety.