New Mexico’s Drive to Tighten Online Child-Safety Rules After Meta Verdict

New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, secured a landmark jury verdict that found Meta — the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — liable for misleading users about platform safety and enabling child sexual exploitation. The first phase of the trial, conducted from February to March, resulted in a $375 million fine; a second phase later ordered the company to pay $567 million, with the total liability reaching $942 million. The court also imposed five-year reforms, including age-verification requirements, overnight limits on push notifications and mandatory time-use caps for users under 18.

The Guardian

Building on the court’s reforms, Torrez is drafting two bills that would expand consumer-protection authority to emerging technologies such as AI chat-bots. Key provisions under consideration include: mandatory, technologically feasible age-verification tools for all users; permanent deletion of personal data collected during verification; blocking platform access for children under 13 and requiring guardian accounts for users under 18. The legislation would also remove caps on penalties for consumer-protection violations, a move Torrez says is intended to pressure Congress for federal action.

The Guardian

• Meta reported removing 36 million pieces of child-sexual-exploitation content from its platforms in 2025.

The Guardian

• The combined fines and damages ordered by New Mexico total $942 million, while Meta estimates potential exposure across 29-state litigation could exceed $1.4 trillion.

The Guardian

• The judge’s five-year compliance period will keep the reforms in place while appeals are pursued.

The Guardian

• “I think there’s a lot of momentum coming out of our victory in court, and the idea is to build on that momentum,” — Raúl Torrez

The Guardian

• “We have strict, longstanding rules against child exploitation and have invested billions to fight it, both through proactive detection technology and safety features designed to prevent harm.” — Meta spokesperson

The Guardian

• “The judge did not go as far as we would have liked on age verification,” — Raúl Torrez

The Guardian

• “My instinct is that this will be a process that evolves over time because it’s a five-year period that that Meta is under the court’s jurisdiction in terms of compliance, and obviously we have to wait for the appellate process to to play out before all of those terms are fully in effect,” — Raúl Torrez

The Guardian