A jury in New Mexico ruled that Meta’s platforms harm children and assigned a significant penalty to the social media giant. Industry experts consider Meta to be the largest social media company in the world by total users. This verdict will have a significant impact on how social media companies architect their platforms for use by children. Let’s take a look.
The New Mexico Case
The jury ruled that Meta’s platforms harm children and that the company engaged in “unconscionable” practices. This landmark finding now reshapes how the nation regulates, designs, and holds social media accountable. This verdict doesn’t change Meta’s practices immediately. Still, it opens the door to sweeping reforms, massive financial exposure, and a new legal framework for treating social media like a defective product. The jury found that Meta:
- Misled parents about platform safety.
- Knowingly harmed children’s mental health.
- Concealed evidence of child sexual exploitation.
- Engaged in “unconscionable” trade practices.
These are horrific findings and will cost the company $375M. The defendants will pay the state of New Mexico, as this is a civil case, and not to the victims. The damage done to the children and their families is irreparable, so please keep them in your prayers. In my view, these findings warrant criminal charges.
Other Social Media Trials
I wrote back in February about a social media trial in Los Angeles, “Social Media On Trial.” The Los Angeles case serves as a personal‑injury bellwether trial brought by an individual to shape thousands of similar lawsuits nationwide. A bellwether case uses a single test lawsuit from a large group to show how juries respond to the core evidence and arguments. Courts use these early trials to predict outcomes and guide settlements in the remaining cases. A 20‑year‑old woman sued Meta and YouTube for personal injury, alleging addictive design caused depression, anxiety, and self‑harm; this is the first bellwether trial in a massive national multi-district litigation (MDL).
Meta is facing thousands of pending lawsuits across the country — including the massive federal MDL with 2,407 individual claims, hundreds of school‑district suits, and multiple state attorney‑general actions. These cases center on youth mental‑health harm, addictive design, and failures to protect minors.
Alongside Meta, other companies are facing major lawsuits over allegedly addictive or harmful design features for children, including YouTube (Google), TikTok (ByteDance), and Snapchat (Snap). The courts have found only Meta liable to date.
Some Parties Have Settled Certain Claims
Several social media companies, in addition to the Meta verdict, have already settled similar youth‑harm and addictive‑design claims. The two confirmed companies that have settled in these cases are TikTok and Snapchat, both of which reached confidential settlements right before the Los Angeles bellwether trial:
- TikTok (ByteDance) — Settled
- TikTok settled its portion of the Los Angeles bellwether trial on the eve of jury selection.
- Terms were confidential.
- TikTok remains a defendant in other personal‑injury cases.
- Snapchat (Snap) — Settled
- Snap also settled with the same plaintiff in the LA bellwether case one week earlier.
- Terms were undisclosed.
- Snap remains a defendant in other lawsuits within the broader litigation.
All of these claims argue that social media platforms should be treated like defective products, not just neutral hosts of user content. The core difference between calling a platform a “defective product” and a “neutral host” is the liability the company can face.
The Catholic View
Jesus would view the verdict through the lens He always used: the protection of children, the exposure of harmful systems, the call to truth, and the invitation to repentance and restoration. This is a moral moment. He consistently places children at the center of God’s concern and warns against systems or leaders who endanger them. In this case, the harm done to the children was known within the company, and they did nothing about it. The jury found that Meta, in fact, covered it up.
When people cover up wrongdoing, they imagine they are protecting themselves. But in the biblical imagination, a cover‑up is not protection — it is corrosion. The act of hiding harm becomes its own kind of harm, spreading outward like rot in the beams of a house. It weakens trust, distorts judgment, and blinds leaders to the suffering right in front of them.
Proverbs 28:13 says: “Those who conceal their sins do not prosper, but those who confess and forsake them obtain mercy.”
Luke 12:2-3 states: “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.”
Pray for the victims and their families. Please share your thoughts about this article in the “Comments” section.
Peace
If you like this article, you might enjoy:
A Tale of Two Horses
Church and State: Protecting Religious Freedom
The Passion Of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In