{"id":178,"date":"2026-03-25T09:51:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/?p=178"},"modified":"2026-03-25T09:51:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:51:55","slug":"us-court-fines-meta-375m-for-child-safety-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/?p=178","title":{"rendered":"US Court Fines Meta $375M for Child Safety Violations,"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A US court has <strong>ordered Meta<\/strong> to pay <strong>$375 million<\/strong> for harming children and exposing them to sexual exploitation on its platforms. The ruling comes after a <strong>six-week trial in New Mexico<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>State officials <strong>accused Meta<\/strong> of failing to protect minors. The jury agreed that Meta <strong>prioritized profit over safety<\/strong> and violated sections of New Mexico\u2019s Unfair Practices Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court found that Meta <strong>misused children\u2019s vulnerabilities<\/strong> and engaged in \u201cunethical business practices.\u201d The ruling marks the first time a US state has <strong>successfully sued Meta<\/strong> over child protection issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, <strong>faces multiple lawsuits<\/strong> regarding its platforms\u2019 impact on youth mental health. The jury sided with the state\u2019s arguments that Meta <strong>ignored safety concerns to increase profits<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the trial, <strong>40 witnesses testified<\/strong>, including whistleblowers. Lawyers reviewed <strong>hundreds of documents, reports, and emails<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meta\u2019s spokesperson <strong>rejected the ruling<\/strong> and announced plans to appeal. He stated, \u201cWe work hard to keep our users safe. Identifying and removing harmful content remains challenging, but we continue to improve our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez <strong>filed the lawsuit in 2023<\/strong> against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Investigators <strong>created fake accounts<\/strong> of users under 14 to test platform safety. These accounts <strong>received sexual content<\/strong> and <strong>interacted with adults seeking such content<\/strong>, prompting multiple charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Torrez called the ruling a <strong>historic victory for children and families<\/strong>. He said, \u201cMeta must now pay the price for placing profits above child safety. No tech company stands above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trial\u2019s <strong>second phase begins in May<\/strong>, where a judge will determine whether Meta must pay <strong>additional fines<\/strong> or <strong>implement further platform changes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, a separate jury in California is <strong>examining Meta and YouTube<\/strong> over their impact on children. This case <strong>could influence thousands of similar lawsuits nationwide<\/strong>. Regulators are reviewing whether platforms <strong>intentionally designed features to engage young users<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A US court has ordered Meta to pay $375 million for harming children and exposing them to sexual exploitation on its platforms. The ruling comes after a six-week trial in New Mexico. State officials accused Meta of failing to protect minors. The jury agreed that Meta prioritized profit over safety and violated sections of New [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[86,84,83,89,87,85,88],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-child-safety","tag-facebook","tag-instagram","tag-meta","tag-new-mexico","tag-social-media-lawsuit","tag-whatsapp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swisstamils.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}