Meta has been fined $375 million in New Mexico over child safety concerns. The case highlights increasing regulatory scrutiny of tech companies to improve user protection and strengthen platform accountability measures.
The verdict marks the first time a jury has ruled on such claims against Meta. The company has been facing a high number of lawsuits over how its platforms affect young people's mental health.
A New Mexico jury on Tuesday (March 24, 2026) found Meta Platforms violated state law. The state attorney general accused the company of misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp and of promoting child sexual exploitation on those platforms.
In a statement, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, called the verdict "a historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price for Meta’s choice to put profits over kids’ safety." "The substantial damages the jury ordered Meta to pay should send a clear message to big tech executives that no company is beyond the reach of the law," he said.
The state had asked the jury to award more than $2 billion in damages.
In a second phase of the trial in May, Torrez said his office will ask the court to order Meta to make changes to its platforms to protect children and to impose additional financial penalties.
The jury’s decision capped a six-week trial in Santa Fe. Torrez had accused the company of allowing predators unfettered access to underage users and connecting them with victims, often leading to real-world abuse and human trafficking.
"Over the course of a decade, Meta has failed over and over again to act honestly and transparently," Linda Singer, an attorney for the state, told the jury during closing arguments on Monday. "It failed to act to protect young people in this state."
Meta denied the allegations, saying it has extensive safeguards in place to protect younger users. “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. "We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content."
"What the evidence shows is Meta's robust disclosures and tireless efforts to prevent harmful content. And these disclosures mean that Meta did not knowingly and intentionally lie to the public," Kevin Huff, an attorney for Meta, told the jury.
The New Mexico lawsuit grew out of an undercover operation, which Torrez, a former prosecutor, and his office ran in 2023. Investigators created accounts on Facebook and Instagram posing as users younger than 14. The accounts received sexually explicit material and were contacted by adults seeking similar content. It led to criminal charges against multiple individuals, according to Torrez's office.
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Meta is facing thousands of lawsuits accusing it and other social media companies of intentionally designing their products to be addictive to young people, leading to a nationwide mental health crisis. Some of the lawsuits, which have been filed in both state and federal courts, seek damages in the tens of billions of dollars, according to Meta’s filings with financial regulators.
A state court jury in Los Angeles is currently deliberating in the first trial over the addiction claims. The company has said the state's allegations of harm cannot be separated from the content on the platforms, because their algorithms and design features are mainly for publishing content. The state also accused Meta of designing its platforms to maximize engagement despite evidence that they were harming children's mental health.