Facebook parent sued by New Mexico alleging it has failed to shield children from predators
New Mexico's attorney general is suing the parent company of Facebook and Instagram claiming it failed to protect underage users from exposure to child sexual abuse material and let adults solicit pornographic imagery from them
Santa Fe, N.M. — Facebook and Instagram fail to protect underage users from exposure to child sexual abuse material and let adults solicit pornographic imagery from them, New Mexico's attorney general alleges in a lawsuit that follows an undercover online investigation.
“Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” Attorney General Raul Torrez said in a (prepared statement Wednesday.
The civil suit filed late Tuesday against Meta Platforms Inc. in state court also names its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, as a defendant.
In addition, the suit claims Meta “harms children and teenagers through the addictive design of its platform, degrading users’ mental health, their sense of self-worth, and their physical safety,” Torrez’ office said in a statement.
Those claims echo a lawsuit filed in late October by the attorneys general of 33 states including California and New York, against Meta that alleges Instagram and Facebook include features deliberately designed to hook children, contributing to the youth mental health crisis and leading to depression, anxiety and eating disorders.
Investigators in New Mexico created decoy accounts of children 14 years and younger that Torrez' office said were served sexually explicit images even when the child expressed no interest in them. State prosecutors claim that Meta let dozens of adults find, contact and
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