Meta aims to exclude sensitive topics from its New Mexico child safety trial amid allegations of failing to protect minors.
Santa Fe: Meta is facing a trial in New Mexico for not protecting children from sexual exploitation. The company wants to keep some information out of court. This includes studies about social media and youth mental health and any mention of a teen suicide case linked to its platforms.
Meta also wants to block details about its money, employee actions, and Mark Zuckerberg’s college days at Harvard. These actions are called motions in limine. They help the judge choose which evidence can be shown to the jury. Meta wants the jury to focus only on whether it broke New Mexico’s laws about child safety and mental health.
Some lawyers think Meta’s requests are very aggressive. They want to keep out information about its AI chatbots and its public image. This case was started by New Mexico’s attorney general Raúl Torrez in late 2023. The state claims Meta failed to keep minors safe from online dangers like human trafficking and sexual abuse.
The state says police made fake accounts as young girls on Facebook and Instagram. They quickly got explicit messages and were shown lots of pornographic content. In another case, police created a fake account of a mother trying to traffic her daughter. Meta is accused of not shutting down bad accounts that were reported.
Meta’s spokesperson Aaron Simpson said the company has listened to parents and experts for over ten years. They have made changes like creating Teen Accounts for better safety. He claimed that while New Mexico is making distracting arguments, Meta wants to show its commitment to helping young people.
In its trial motions, Meta also wants to block a public advisory from Vivek Murthy, the former US surgeon general, about social media’s impact on youth mental health. Meta argues these opinions treat all social media companies the same, which they believe is unfair.