“No-one should go through” what they had to go through, Mr. Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, stated to them.
Senate members from both parties questioned him and the executives of TikTok, Snap, X, and Discord for nearly four hours.
Legislators were curious about the steps being taken to safeguard minors on the internet.
Congress is now debating legislation that would make social media corporations answerable for content uploaded on their networks.
The session on Wednesday gave US senators a unique chance to grill tech executives.
In contrast to the executives of Snap, X (previously Twitter), and messaging app Discord, who first declined and received government-issued subpoenas, Mr. Zuckerberg and CEO of TikTok Shou Zi Chew willingly consented to testify.
Families who claimed their children had killed themselves or self-harmed due to social media postings were seated behind the five internet executives.
Throughout, they made it clear how they felt by cheering when lawmakers posed difficult questions and hissed when the CEOs arrived.
The protection of minors from online sexual exploitation was the primary focus of the session, but the senators took advantage of the presence of five influential executives to ask a wide range of questions.
The CEO of TikTok, Mr. Chew, was questioned about whether his business shared US users’ data with the Chinese company ByteDance.
Senator Tom Cotton of the United States questioned Mr. Chew, a Singaporean, about his membership in the Chinese Communist Party.
“I’m from Singapore, Senator. No, Mr. Chew answered.
“Have you ever been associated or affiliated with Chinese Communist Party?” Mr. Cotton then inquired.
Mr. Chew answered, “Senator, no. I’m Singaporean once more.”
Being a father of three small children, he continued, he was aware that the topics being discussed were “horrific and the nightmare of every parent”.
He acknowledged that his own kids had not used TikTok due to Singaporean laws prohibiting under-13s from opening accounts.
