A grieving mother criticized Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's apology to parents of children cyberbullied on Facebook, asking: “How many more have to die?” during a heartbreaking interview.
Rose Bronstein lost her 15-year-old son Nate to suicide in January 2022 after he was brutally bullied on social media by his classmates at the $43,000 Latin school in Chicago.
At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Zuckerberg stood up under pressure from Republican Rep. Josh Hawley and addressed families who held up pictures of their children who they said had been harmed by social media.
Speaking to Fox News' Martha MacCallum, Bronstein accused Zuckerberg of being “full of it” and said he and other tech CEOs have no interest in children's online safety because they only care about profits.
At the start of Wednesday's hearing, the committee played a video of children talking about bullying on social media platforms.
Senators told stories of young people taking their own lives after being blackmailed for money after sharing photos with sex offenders.
In a new interview, Rose Bronstein, a grieving mother, criticized Mark Zuckerberg's apology, saying it “really didn't mean anything.”
Bronstein's son Nate took his own life at the age of 15 after being relentlessly bullied on social media
“Because of the distraction and denial from the CEOs who sat there to testify, at this point legislation must be enacted to hold these CEOs accountable,” MacCallum said. “All they care about is profits.”
The Chicago woman criticized Zuckerberg's comments, saying, “They really didn't mean anything.”
“Whatever protective measures these CEOs are taking are not working,” she continued, describing the apology as “spontaneous.”
Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, specifically pressured Zuckerberg to apologize.
“Would you now like to apologize to the victims harmed by your product?” The hearing was broadcast live in the USA.
Zuckerberg stood up, turned around and addressed the families.
“I'm sorry for everything you've all been through.” “No one should have to suffer the suffering that your families have suffered and that's why we're investing so much and will continue to make an industry-wide effort to ensure that no one does have to suffer what your families have had to suffer,” he said.
Hawley aggressively criticized Zuckerberg during a controversial exchange. “Your product is killing people,” Hawley told Zuckerberg, who also owns Instagram.
The Chicago woman criticized Zuckerberg's comments, saying, “Really doesn't mean anything.”
Last year, the Bronsteins filed a lawsuit against their son's school, seeking $100 million in damages
Last year, the Bronsteins filed a lawsuit against their son's school, seeking $100 million in damages.
The parents claim Dean of Students Bridget Hennessy quickly informed them that Nate was not wearing his mask properly during COVID.
But they claim Hennessey didn't bother to tell them about the bullying Nate allegedly told her about.
“Her first instinct, her second instinct and her third instinct were to protect herself and her career,” Robert said, according to Fox News. “You could literally care less about the truth.”
They enrolled Nate in school in 2021 after his institution still opted for virtual learning and his parents wanted him to return to in-person learning.
But when he entered Latin school, he immediately encountered students who said he was transferring for “shameful reasons,” questioned his vaccination status and accused his parents of being anti-vaxxers, Rose said.
“They spread rumors that he was unvaccinated, which of course was similar to the Scarlet Letter at the time,” Rose said, adding that her son had actually been vaccinated.
The 15-year-old eventually requested a meeting with the dean of the Latin school to report that several students were harassing him via text messages and on Snapchat – one of which encouraged him to kill himself.
The heartbroken parents claim they were never informed that their son had reported bullying to the school. When they found out on their own and reported it to the school, officials said they believed they were aware of the situation
They enrolled Nate in school in 2021 after his institution still opted for virtual learning and his parents wanted him to return to in-person learning. But when he entered Latin school, he immediately encountered students who said he was transferring for “shameful reasons,” questioned his vaccination status and accused his parents of being anti-vaxxers, Rose said
The dean listened to Nate, a 10th-grader, but took no disciplinary action, according to a $100 million lawsuit filed by his parents.
His parents had already planned to move Nate at the end of the year after learning about his experiences, but it was already too late.
A month after meeting him, Nate was found hanging in his home.
Before his death, his parents had encouraged him to join the junior basketball team in hopes he would make friends there, but the bullying only got worse. When Latin played against his old school, Nate posted a “W” for win since his former school had won the award, which angered his teammates.
In a group chat with about 20 boys, messages like “don’t show up tomorrow” and “snake ass n****” are buzzing through his phone for hours. The family's lawsuit accuses the boy of even threatening to harm Nate.
The day after Nate took his own life, other parents provided school principal Randall Dunn with evidence of the bullying, according to Fox News. However, according to the lawsuit, the school did not provide the Bronsteins with this evidence until two weeks after their son's death.
“January 13th was the most terrible day of our lives. And when we found out what had happened on January 27th, I felt like I was reliving that trauma. “It was absolutely shocking,” Rose said.
“Our son would still be alive today if Latin had done her job and told us what happened at school,” Rose Bronstein told CBS News last month.
Nate had not been at the Latin School of Chicago, one of Chicago's most prestigious private schools, long, but he had a promising future.
His parents described the tenth grader as a “super sharp, funny boy.”
“He definitely wanted to go to a college where there were big-time sports,” his father, Robert Bronstein, told CBS News. “He loved to make people laugh and he loved to laugh himself.”
But the school is “a toxic culture,” Rose said. “So toxic that we lost our son because of it.”
According to the filing, Nate began experiencing and complaining about bullying in September 2021.