For Immediate Release
Contact: press@kidscodecoalition.org

WASHINGTON, DC – The Kids Code Coalition issued the following statement after New Mexico Attorney General’s lawsuit revealed disturbing new evidence about social media platform misconduct endangering children:

“The Kids Code Coalition applauds New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and the lawsuit filed against Meta and its platforms on behalf of kids and families in New Mexico. The Coalition, which represents parents, youth, educators, mental health and health care practitioners, and technologists also calls on members of the New Mexico State legislature to hold these companies to account and kick-off the effort to safeguard children by passing the Age-Appropriate Design Code. 

“The Attorney General’s investigation, which involved setting up test accounts posing as teenagers or preteens, algorithms recommending sexual content to these “underage” accounts, inundated with explicit messages. This appalling reality highlights the immediate need for safer products online by design and for the need for New Mexico to regulate an industry that cannot regulate itself.

“The Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC), introduced last session and supported by the New Mexico American Academy of Pediatrics, National Education Association of New Mexico, and the NM state chapter of American Federation of Teachers, offers a privacy and safety by design framework that requires companies to consider the best interests of children and conduct regular risk assessments, something required in every other product our children come in contact with from cribs to carseats to ear pods. Contrary to misconceptions (largely spread by Big Tech advocates), the AADC does not impose content moderation or limit children’s access to age-appropriate content. “Instead, this legislative solution prioritizes default privacy settings to safeguard children’s personal information, recognizing that the highest privacy settings should be the default for their protection. Let’s focus on protecting New Mexico’s children and adopt the Age-Appropriate Design Code in the upcoming legislative session.”

The new revelations follow a Wall Street Journal report spotlighting evidence that Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s executive team ignored employee warnings and in response, made it harder to report misconduct.

###