New Mexico AG slams Meta over PG-13 Instagram plan, calls 'dangerous promotional stunt' as lawsuit heads to trial

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez condemned Meta over its plan to tag teen Instagram accounts with a PG-13 style safety label, calling the rollout a 'dangerous promotional stunt' that could lull parents into a false sense of security. In a letter to Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, a copy of which The Post obtained exclusively, Torrez warned that Meta’s framing of the feature misrepresents oversight on the platform. The letter comes as a civil lawsuit against Meta over child-safety issues heads toward trial on Feb. 2.

Torrez cited Meta's October rollout that teen accounts would be automatically placed into safety filters guided by PG-13 movie ratings, with posts featuring strong language or risky content shielded. The Motion Picture Association has called Meta’s use of the PG-13 label literally false, deceptive, and highly misleading. The lawsuit alleges Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the effectiveness of its safety tools, and Zuckerberg is named as a defendant.

Torrez demanded that Meta stop marketing teen accounts as PG-13 and instead implement meaningful safety protections, including age verification and changes to the platform’s recommendation algorithms to reduce exposure to harmful content. Meta spokesman Andy Stone told The Post that the allegations are false and that progress has been made. 'The only promotional stunt is this letter, which is littered with factual errors and misrepresentations and deliberately designed to distract from the meaningful changes and built-in protections we’ve introduced to help keep young people safe online,' Stone said.

According to the lawsuit, New Mexico investigators set up test accounts on Instagram and Facebook for four fictional children using AI-generated photos that purportedly portrayed children aged 14 or younger. The test accounts were bombarded with adult sex content and outreach from alleged predators, including 'pictures and videos of genitalia' and an offer of a six-figure payment to star in a porn video, the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit alleges that Meta’s recommendation algorithm has fueled a marketplace that connects 'pedophiles, predators, and others engaged in the commerce of sex and allow[s] them to hunt for, groom, sell, and buy sex with children and sexual images of children at an unprecedented scale.' In the same filing, the court documents name Zuckerberg as a defendant.

Fairplay for Kids, an online watchdog group focused on child safety, said in a September report that its tests showed only one in five of the safety features associated with Meta’s teen accounts program was effective. The case was initially filed in late 2023 and heads toward trial, with the Feb. 2 date looming.

Beyond a single state case, the suit highlights ongoing scrutiny from state attorneys general and consumer safety advocates of Meta’s safety tools, with potential implications for how other platforms label safety features. The NM suit is part of a broader push within US politics to regulate social media platforms and address youth online safety, a theme gaining renewed attention as lawmakers weigh possible federal standards and tighter oversight.