Facebook and Instagram owner enabled child sexual exploitation

The US state of New Mexico ordered Facebook’s parent company to pay $375 million over profiting from exposing youngsters to online abuse

Meta has been ordered to pay $375 million for knowingly harming children’s mental health and concealing evidence of child sexual exploitation on its social media platforms.

The New Mexico Department of Justice issued the ruling on Tuesday after a jury found that Facebook’s parent company had violated state law in what is the first case focused on the role of social media in child sexual exploitation and harm to mental health.

The landmark verdict comes after a seven-week trial and stems from an undercover investigation conducted by the state authorities in 2023.

Agents created fake accounts on Meta social media platforms and identified two men who, believing them to be minors, attempted to coerce them into sexual acts. Both suspects were later arrested.

According to the statement, Meta employees and external child safety experts repeatedly raised concerns about such risks, but most of the warnings were ignored.

A former Meta employee said the personalized algorithms that make the company’s platforms – including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads – effective at targeting advertising could be just as useful to pedophiles.

The jury found 75,000 violations and awarded $5,000 per violation. The state’s final claim against Meta, alleging it created a public nuisance harming residents’ health and safety, will be heard in a bench trial in May. The authorities will be seeking platform changes such as age verification and predator removal.

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Commenting on the ruling, a Meta spokesperson said the company would appeal.

The case is the second major 2026 lawsuit against the tech giant over alleged harm to minors. Another high-profile trial is ongoing in Los Angeles, where families and schools have filed the first-ever product liability suit against Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, claiming the platforms were deliberately designed to make children addicted and damage their mental health.

Worldwide, the company is encountering increasing regulatory pressure, having been labeled an “extremist organization” in Russia in 2022 and facing several EU actions, including a €797 million ($940 million) antitrust fine, along with separate copyright, data‑protection, and advertising cases throughout Europe.

Concerns over child safety online are increasing legal pressure. In the US, Meta faces lawsuits over addictive features and user safety, while countries such as Australia, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, the UK, Indonesia, and Malaysia are restricting or planning restrictions on social media access for children and teens.