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A group of six whistleblowers have come forward with allegations of a cover-up of harm to children on Meta’s virtual reality devices and apps. They say the social media company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and offers a line of VR headsets and games, deleted or doctored internal safety research that showed children being exposed to grooming, sexual harassment and violence in its 3D realms.

“Meta knew that underage children were using its products, but figured, ‘Hey, kids drive engagement,’ and it was making them cash,” Jason Sattizahn, one of the whistleblowers who worked on the company’s VR research, said in a statement. “Meta has compromised their internal teams to manipulate research and straight-up erase data that they don’t like.”

Sattizahn and the other whistleblowers, all current or former Meta employees, have disclosed these findings and a trove of documents to Congress, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the allegations. Sattizahn and Cayce Savage, who was Meta’s lead researcher on youth user experience for VR, will appear before the US Senate judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law on Tuesday.

Dani Lever, a Meta spokesperson, said the company has approved 180 studies related to its VR Reality Labs since 2022, which include research on youth safety and wellbeing.

“These few examples are being stitched together to fit a predetermined and false narrative,” she said, adding that Meta has introduced features to its VR products to limit unwanted contact and supervision tools for parents.

The whistleblower allegations made public on Monday claim that on Meta’s VR products, the company could have done more to ensure children’s safety. The whistleblowers say company managers instructed staff to avoid research that might show evidence of child harm in virtual reality.

In one instance, a researcher was reportedly told to “swallow that ick”.

In another instance, a researcher was allegedly told to delete information from an interview they had conducted with a German family, according to the Washington Post. During that interview, a teenage boy told the researcher that his brother, who was under the age of 10, had “frequently encountered strangers” in Meta’s VR and that “adults had sexually propositioned his little brother”.

The allegations arise as a steady procession of former Meta employees have come forward to criticize the company for not doing enough to protect children from harm on its social media products. Lawmakers have also repeatedly grilled Meta executives for pushing content to youth that promotes bullying, drug abuse and self-harm.

At one congressional hearing in January 2024, Republican senator Josh Hawley prodded Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, into publicly apologizing.

“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Zuckerberg said at the time. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”

Marsha Blackburn, a Republican senator from Tennessee, said the revelations about Meta’s VR products show Congress needs to pass legislation putting guardrails on social media companies.

“Instead of heeding serious concerns about widespread child harm on their platforms, Meta silenced employees who dared to come forward, buried egregious evidence, and shamelessly used innocent kids as pawns to line their pockets,” Blackburn said. “These whistleblowers should be commended for having the courage to expose Meta’s disgusting web of lies.”

The six whistleblowers are represented by the legal nonprofit Whistleblower Aid. They are scheduled to testify before the subcommittee on Tuesday.

The current and former Meta employees have also filed a detailed disclosure to Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.

The chair of Ferrari and Stellantis has agreed to do one year of community service and jointly pay millions of euros to settle a dispute over inheritance tax in Italy.

John Elkann and his siblings Lapo and Ginerva will pay €183m (£159m) to Italian tax authorities, Italian prosecutors said, according to multiple media reports.

Mr Elkann’s lawyer said the agreement did not include an admission of liability from the Ferrari chair and his siblings.

He said the prosecutors’ decisions were an opportunity to bring “this painful affair to a swift and definitive close”.

Mr Elkann, a member of one of the most powerful families in Italy, is the grandson of Gianni Agnelli, the former boss of Fiat.

The tax dispute relates to the estate of Mr Elkann’s grandmother, Marella Caracciolo, who died in 2019.

Mr Elkann will need to suggest where he could do his community service, which Reuters reported could include helping at a centre for the elderly or a centre helping people with drug addiction.

Paolo Siniscalchi, the Elkanns’ attorney, said in a statement to the BBC: “John Elkann’s request for probation must be viewed in this context and does not entail, just as the settlement with the tax authorities does not, any admission of responsibility.

“If this request is granted, the proceedings against him will be suspended, and upon the successful completion of the probationary period, will conclude with a ruling extinguishing all the charges for which John Elkann is currently under investigation.

“This outcome would mirror that of his siblings Ginevra and Lapo, for whom dismissal of charges has been requested.”

Prosecutors had alleged the Elkann siblings failed to declare roughly €1bn in assets and €248.5m in income, on the basis their grandmother was a Swiss resident.

Prosecutors on Monday accepted the agreement to pay millions, and have asked the judge to drop a criminal case against Mr Elkann’s brother and sister, which was dismissed.

The case stems from a wider dispute between the Elkann siblings and their mother, Margherita Agnelli over the estate of Gianni Agnelli. A civil case is ongoing.

Mr Agnelli died more than 20 years ago after building Fiat up from a small car manufacturer into a major conglomerate.

Ms Agnelli, who inherited €1.2bn euros, has been fighting to overturn agreements she signed in 2004 after her father’s death in an attempt to ensure that money goes to her five children from a second marriage and not to her three eldest.

Ms Agnelli’s lawyers said in a statement that they welcomed the outcome of these tax and criminal proceedings.

Mr Elkann is the oldest of Ms Agnelli’s children. He has been chair of Stellantis since 2021, and became chair of Ferrari in 2018, according to Stellantis.

He first joined Fiat’s board in 1997 and was previously the company’s chair.