Zuckerberg says his five-year-old uses Messenger as lawmaker tells him platform is her ‘biggest fear as parent’

Facebook boss says his five-year-old daughter uses Messenger Kids to contact cousins

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says his five-year-old uses Messenger as a lawmaker told him the platform is her “biggest fear as parent”.

Mr Zuckerberg said that he allowed his eldest daughter, Max, to use the platform to “message her cousins” as he and other tech bosses came under fire from politicians in Congress.

The social media CEO was joined by Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pinchai in fielding questions from the Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday.

Republicans on the committee took turns in their opening statements and questioning of the executives to criticise the social media platforms and their impact on users and extremist groups.

GOP congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, from Washington state, told the executives: “You have broken my trust … Your platforms are my biggest fear as a parent.”

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She then asked Mr Zuckerberg if he allowed his own children to use Facebook products.

“Congresswoman, My daughters are five and three and they do not use our products. Actually that is not exactly true my eldest daughter, Max, I let use Messenger Kids sometimes to message her cousins,” said Mr Zuckerberg.

Facebook released Messenger Kids in 2017 as a safer platform for younger users than Facebook Messenger.

The billionaire Facebook boss went on to offer. a strong rebuttal of claims that social media platforms were responsible for polarising their users.

“The division we see today is the result of a political and media environment that drives people apart,” added Mr Zuckerberg.

Under questioning Mr Zuckerberg admitted that his platform had carried content related to the 6 January Capitol riot that left five people, including a police officer, dead.

“Certainly there was content on our services,” Mr Zuckerberg responded.

Following the Capitol violence Facebook Chief Operating Office Sheryl Sandberg said the insurrection was planned on smaller social networks, and not on Facebook.