Meta's $18 billion settlement leaves out the child protections New Mexico already won at trial, its Attorney General says

Meta’s new child-safety deal is being sold as a breakthrough. New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, isn’t buying the whole package. His office already won a jury verdict against Meta, so he’s in a rare position to compare the settlement with what a court in his state has already required — and he says the nationwide deal leaves important protections on the table.

Torrez said he had hoped the agreement would match New Mexico’s court victory, including a direct ban on romantic and sexualized AI chatbot interactions with minors and tougher limits on adults targeting kids in private messages. Instead, he described the settlement as helpful but incomplete. New Mexico’s case has already cost Meta about $942 million after a March jury verdict for 75,000 consumer protection violations and an August ruling that added more penalties over what a judge called a “public nuisance” similar to air pollution.

The nationwide settlement, which still needs court approval, was struck with 51 other attorneys general and calls for Meta to pay up to $18 billion over the next decade. It would force changes to Facebook and Instagram for users under 18: a two-hour daily limit by default, a block on use from midnight to 6 a.m., muted notifications during school hours, hidden like counts, a ban on cosmetic-surgery and extreme makeup filters, stronger age checks, and an independent auditor for five years.

Meta says the same rules should apply across the industry and is publicly pressing TikTok and YouTube to follow suit. Fairplay, a child advocacy group, called the deal a watershed moment but said it should have gone further by turning off recommendation systems for kids and doing more than nudging parents with tools and reminders. The Center for Democracy and Technology, meanwhile, warned that stronger age checks can bring their own privacy and free-expression problems for everyone.

That tension is the whole story here. Child-safety advocates want harder limits; privacy groups see age verification as a door to broader surveillance; Meta wants credit for moving first and pressure on rivals to copy it. And looming over all of it is Congress, which has spent years admiring the problem from a safe distance while states drag it into court.