Meta to face trial in New Mexico lawsuit over alleged child sexual exploitation

Meta will face trial in a New Mexico lawsuit accusing the company of exposing children and teens to sexual exploitation on its platforms – and alleging it profited from it.

The case, which was brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, is the first of its kind against Meta to reach a jury, according to Reuters.

In a lawsuit, Torrez alleges that the company promoted illegal content and allowed predators access to underage users on its Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms. Predators were able to connect with potential victims, which led to real-world abuse and human trafficking.

The lawsuit stems from an undercover operation conducted in 2023, during which investigators set up Facebook and Instagram accounts posing as users under 14. The accounts were contacted by adults seeking sexually explicit content, and also directly received inappropriate material, which led to three individuals facing criminal charges.

The company is also accused of designing the platform in a way that maximizes engagement through addictive features like infinite scroll and auto-play videos, despite internal evidence of negative effects on mental health. These effects can include depression, anxiety, and self-harm, according to the lawsuit.

Although the company’s internal documents suggest that it acknowledged problems related to sexual exploitation and mental health harms, it failed to set up basic protections, like age verification, and misrepresented the safety of its platforms, according to the complaint.

Meta has denied allegations and claimed that its current policies and safeguards protect underage users.

The trial is set to begin with jury selection on Monday in Santa Fe District Court and will last seven or eight weeks.

The state is seeking monetary damages and an order to make Meta improve its safety features for children.

A Meta spokesperson said ahead of the trial, as cited by Reuters, that New Mexico’s arguments are “sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting”.

"For over a decade, we’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the spokesperson said. "We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”

Meta, along with many other social media companies, is currently facing thousands of lawsuits accusing it of intentionally designing addictive products for young people, leading to nationwide mental health problems. The first trial in those cases started in Los Angeles earlier this week.