New Mexico Jury Finds Meta Knowingly Harmed Children, Awards $375 Million : Shared by Tom McDermott

This verdict is more than a legal milestone for children and families in the US — it is the first formal acknowledgement by a US jury that a social media giant knowingly put profit ahead of child safety, and that such a choice carries consequences. With more than 40 state attorneys general pursuing similar claims, the New Mexico verdict transforms what was once a argument about the reputation of Meta and other online giants into a legal one: that tech platforms cannot hide behind Section 230 when their own algorithms are the instrument of harm.  Tom

  

By Morgan Lee

Associated Press
25 March 2026
Click here for the article

XUNICEF covered the opening of this trial on 9 February. Click here for that article.

Summary

After nearly seven weeks of trial, a New Mexico jury has ruled that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. The jury found that Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp — prioritised profits over safety and violated the state's Unfair Practices Act through false or misleading statements and “unconscionable” trade practices that exploited the vulnerabilities of children.

Jurors found thousands of violations, setting the penalty at $375 million — less than one-fifth of what prosecutors sought but calculated at the maximum $5,000 per violation. Juror Linda Payton, 38, said the jury believed each child was worth the maximum amount. Meta, valued at approximately $1.5 trillion, said it would appeal.

The verdict does not immediately compel Meta to change its practices. A second phase of the trial, scheduled for May, will ask a judge — not a jury — to determine whether Meta's platforms created a public nuisance and whether it should fund public programmes to address the harms caused.

The New Mexico case, filed in 2023 by Attorney General Raúl Torrez, was built on an undercover investigation in which agents posed as children on social media to document sexual solicitations and Meta's response. It is the first state prosecutor case to reach trial in a wave of litigation involving more than 40 state attorneys general. A parallel federal case in California, involving Meta and YouTube, remains in jury deliberations.

Quotes

“Meta's house of cards is beginning to fall. For years, it's been glaringly obvious that Meta has failed to stop sexual predators from turning online interactions into real world harm.” — Sacha Haworth, Executive Director, The Tech Oversight Project

“We parents who have experienced the unimaginable — the death of a child because of social media harms — applaud this rare and momentous milestone in the years-long fight to hold Big Tech accountable for the dangers their products pose to our kids.” — ParentsSOS coalition 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. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously.” — Meta spokesperson