The hall was thick with tension as Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg apologised to parents who had lost their children to social media-related tragedies during the recent United States congressional hearing on alleged online harms to children.

Social media posts on the apology condemned Mr Zuckerberg and Big Tech companies for their role in this sad state of affairs. But there were others who criticised the parents present at the hearing: “Don’t blame Big Tech for your bad parenting” or “They’re your kids, why didn’t you watch them?”