Santa Fe Jury Awards New Mexico $375M in Meta Child Exploitation Case

A Santa Fe jury has ordered Meta to pay $375 million in damages to New Mexico following a landmark verdict that found the social media company willfully violated the state’s consumer protection laws by endangering teen users and misleading the public about child safety risks on its platforms.

Why It Matters

The verdict represents one of the largest state-level judgments against a major social media company over child safety and exploitation concerns. For New Mexico families, the outcome signals a significant shift in legal accountability for technology platforms that host millions of underage users.

The case also carries major policy implications, with a second trial phase set to determine whether Meta must make structural changes to its platforms — including age verification requirements — that could affect how Instagram and Facebook operate nationwide.

What Happened

A jury in New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe returned its verdict on Tuesday, March 25, 2026, just one day after the conclusion of a seven-week trial. The jury found that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, willfully violated New Mexico’s consumer protection statutes.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2023 by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez. The state alleged that Meta misled the public about the mental health risks its platforms posed to teenage users and knowingly allowed conditions that facilitated the sexual exploitation of minors.

In closing arguments on Monday, attorneys for New Mexico requested damages exceeding $2 billion, calculated as the maximum civil penalty applicable to an estimated 207,800 monthly teen users of Meta’s platforms in the state. The jury ultimately awarded the maximum civil penalty of $5,000 per user across two separate counts — one for misrepresentation of platform safety and another for unconscionable business practices — applied to 37,500 New Mexico teen users.

Attorney General Torrez called the verdict historic. “Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew,” Torrez said in a statement following the decision.

Meta denied the findings and announced plans to appeal. A company spokesperson said Meta “disagrees with the verdict” and will “continue to defend ourselves vigorously,” adding that the company remains confident in its record of protecting teens online.

By the Numbers

• $375 million — Total damages awarded to New Mexico by the Santa Fe jury
• $2 billion+ — Amount requested by New Mexico attorneys in closing arguments
• 37,500 — Number of New Mexico teen users the jury applied maximum penalties against, representing approximately one-quarter of the state’s total teen population
• $5,000 — Maximum civil penalty per user awarded under two separate counts of consumer protection violations
• Seven weeks — Duration of the trial before the jury reached its verdict
• 2023 — Year Attorney General Torrez originally filed the lawsuit against Meta

Zoom Out

New Mexico’s verdict is part of a growing national wave of state-level legal action targeting major social media companies over their impact on minors. Dozens of states have filed or joined lawsuits against Meta and other platforms, citing internal company documents — many surfaced by whistleblowers — that allegedly show executives were aware of harms to teenage mental health long before public disclosures.

Several states have also enacted or proposed legislation requiring age verification for social media platforms, parental consent for minors, and stricter data privacy protections for users under 18. Courts in other jurisdictions are weighing similar consumer protection and public nuisance claims against Meta, TikTok, and other platforms, making the New Mexico outcome a closely watched precedent.

The Federal Trade Commission has also taken steps to scrutinize how platforms collect and use data from minor users, adding a federal regulatory dimension to the broader debate over online child safety.

What’s Next

A second phase of the New Mexico trial is scheduled to begin on May 4, 2026. In that proceeding, the New Mexico Department of Justice will argue a public nuisance case against Meta before First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid.

The state is expected to seek court orders requiring Meta to implement concrete platform changes, potentially including mandatory age verification systems and additional safeguards for teen accounts. Depending on the outcome, the second phase could result in further financial penalties on top of Tuesday’s $375 million award.

Meta has indicated it will pursue an appeal of the jury’s verdict, meaning the $375 million judgment is unlikely to be finalized in the near term. Legal experts anticipate the case could work its way through the appellate courts over the next several years before any payments are collected by the state.