{"id":24438,"date":"2026-03-24T21:54:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T03:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-jury-says-meta-harms-childrens-mental-health-and-safety-violating-state-law\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:31:24","slug":"new-mexico-jury-says-meta-harms-childrens-mental-health-and-safety-violating-state-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-mexico-jury-says-meta-harms-childrens-mental-health-and-safety-violating-state-law\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico jury says Meta harms children\u2019s mental health and safety, violating state law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Linda
Linda Singer, an attorney representing the plaintiff, left, shakes hands with attorney Kevin Huff, representing Meta, after they made closing arguments on Monday in state court, in Santa Fe, N.M., in a trial where the social media conglomerate is accused of misleading its users about how safe its platforms are for children. Eddie Moore\/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

SANTA FE \u2013 A New Mexico jury ruled Tuesday that Meta knowingly harmed children\u2019s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its social media platforms.<\/p>\n

The landmark decision comes after a nearly seven-week trial, and as jurors in a federal court in California have been sequestered in deliberations for more than a week about whether Meta and YouTube should be liable in a similar case.<\/p>\n

Jurors sided with state prosecutors who argued that Meta \u2013 which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp \u2013 prioritized profits over safety. The jury determined Meta violated parts of the state\u2019s Unfair Practices Act on accusations the company hid what it knew about the dangers of child sexual exploitation on its platforms and impacts on child mental health.<\/p>\n

The jury agreed with allegations that Meta made false or misleading statements and also agreed that Meta engaged in \u201cunconscionable\u201d trade practices that unfairly took advantage of the vulnerabilities of and inexperience of children.<\/p>\n

Jurors found there were thousands of violations, each counting separately toward a penalty of $375 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal,\u201d a Meta spokesperson said. \u201cWe work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Meta said the company discloses risks and makes efforts to weed out harmful content and experiences, while acknowledging that some bad material gets through its safety net.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s case was among the first to reach trial in a wave of litigation involving social media platforms and their impacts on children.<\/p>\n

The trial that started Feb. 9. is one of the first in a torrent of lawsuits against Meta and comes as school districts and legislators want more restrictions on the use of smartphones in classrooms.<\/p>\n

More than 40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against Meta, claiming it\u2019s contributing to a mental health crisis among young people by deliberately designing Instagram and Facebook features that are addictive.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s case relied on a state undercover investigation where agents created social media accounts posing as children to document sexual solicitations and Meta\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in 2023 by New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez, also says Meta hasn\u2019t fully disclosed or addressed the dangers of social media addiction. Meta hasn\u2019t agreed that social media addiction exists, but executives at trial acknowledged \u201cproblematic use\u201d and say they want people to feel good about the time they spend on Meta\u2019s platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence shows not only that Meta invests in safety because it\u2019s the right thing to do but because it is good for business,\u201d Meta attorney Kevin Huff told jurors in closing arguments. \u201cMeta designs its apps to help people connect with friends and family, not to try to connect predators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech companies have been protected from liability for material posted on their social media platforms under Section 230, a 30-year-old provision of the U.S. Communications Decency Act, as well as a First Amendment shield.<\/p>\n

New Mexico prosecutors say Meta still should be responsible for its role in pushing out that content through complex algorithms that proliferate material that can be harmful for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the output is meant to be engagement and time spent for kids,\u201d prosecution attorney Linda Singer said. \u201cThat choice that Meta made has profound negative impacts on kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

A slated second phase of the trial, possibly in May before a judge with no jury, would determine whether Meta created a public nuisance and may be ordered to change course and pay for remedies.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico trial examined a raft of Meta\u2019s internal correspondence and reports related to child safety. Jurors also heard testimony from Meta executives, platform engineers, whistleblowers who left the company, psychiatric experts and tech-safety consultants.<\/p>\n

The jury also heard testimony from local public school educators who struggled with disruptions linked to social media, including sextortion schemes targeting children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this case is about is one of the biggest tech companies in the world taking advantage of New Mexico teens,\u201d state Chief Deputy Attorney General James Grayson told the jury in closing arguments.<\/p>\n

The jury was assembled from residents of Santa Fe County, including the politically progressive state capital city.<\/p>\n

In reaching a verdict, it considered whether social media users were misled by specific statements about platform safety by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Meta global head of safety Antigone Davis.<\/p>\n

In deliberations, the jury used a checklist of allegations from prosecutors that Meta failed to disclose what it knew about problems with enforcing its ban on users under 13, the prevalence of social media content about teen suicide, the role of Meta algorithms in prioritizing sensational or harmful content, and more.<\/p>\n

\"Linda
Linda Singer, an attorney representing the plaintiff, makes closing arguments on Monday in state court in Santa Fe in a trial where the social media conglomerate is accused of misleading its users about how safe its platforms are for children. Eddie Moore\/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of violations in New Mexico result in penalty of $375 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,138,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77021,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24438\/revisions\/77021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24438"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}