Landmark cases on social media's impact on children begin this week in US Two lawsuits accusing the world's largest social media companies of harming children begin this week, marking the first legal efforts to hold companies like Meta responsible for the effects their products have on young users. Opening arguments began today in a case brought by New Mexico's attorney general's office, which alleges that Meta failed to protect children from sexually explicit material. A separate case in Los Angeles, which accuses Meta and the Google-owned YouTube of deliberately designing their platforms to be addictive for children, is set to begin later this week. The New Mexico and California lawsuits are the first of a wave of 40 lawsuits filed by state attorneys general around the US against Meta, specifically, that allege that the social media giant is harming the mental health of young Americans. In the opening argument in the New Mexico case, which was first filed in 2023, prosecutors told jurors on Monday that Meta - Facebook and Instagram's parent company - had failed to disclose its platforms' harmful effects on kids.

He catches nascent changes in the political weather. "During early, he kept telling me, 'Crime--there's something here,' " DeBoo told me. DeBoo studied the latest crime statistics and saw nothing unusual. He brushed off the worry. Then new numbers came out, showing a large pandemic spike in shoplifting and car theft, and concerns about crime exploded into the headlines. Last March, judging the winds, Newsom launched a podcast, "This Is Gavin Newsom."

Apple could unveil Gemini-powered Siri in Feb. Despite not wanting minors to have explicit conversations, Meta's CEO allegedly rejected this particular safety measure. Meta has faced some serious questions about how it allows its underage users to interact with AI-powered chatbots. Most recently, internal communications obtained by the New Mexico Attorney General's Office revealed that although Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was opposed to the chatbots having explicit conversations with minors, he also rejected the idea of placing parental controls on the feature. In its statement to the publication, Meta accused the New Mexico Attorney General of cherry picking documents to paint a flawed and inaccurate picture.

Filing by New Mexico's attorney general includes Meta staff emails objecting to AI companion policy Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, approved allowing minors to access artificial intelligence chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions, according to internal Meta documents filed in a New Mexico state court case and made public on Monday. The lawsuit - brought by the state's attorney general, Raul Torrez, and scheduled for trial next month - alleges Meta "failed to stem the tide of damaging sexual material and sexual propositions delivered to children" on Facebook and Instagram. The filing on Monday included internal Meta employee emails and messages obtained by the New Mexico attorney general's office through legal discovery. The state alleges they show that "Meta, driven by Zuckerberg, rejected the recommendations of its integrity staff and declined to impose reasonable guardrails to prevent children from being subject to sexually exploitative conversations with its AI chatbots", the attorney general said in the filing. Meta announced last week that it had removed teen access to AI companions entirely, pending creation of a new version of the chatbots.

At least 37 attorneys general for US states and territories are taking action against xAI after Grok generated a flood of nonconsensual sexual images of women and minors. At least 37 attorneys general for US states and territories are taking action against xAI after people used its chatbot, Grok, to generate a flood of sexualized images earlier this year. On Friday, a bipartisan group of 35 attorneys general published an open letter to xAI demanding it "immediately take all available additional steps to protect the public and users of your platforms, especially the women and girls who are the overwhelming target of [non-consensual intimate images]." The letter comes amid an international wave of regulator attention on Grok users creating intimate deepfake images of people without their consent, as well as sexualized images of children. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate estimates that during an 11-day period starting on December 29, Grok's account on X generated around 3 million photorealistic sexualized images, including around 23,000 sexualized images of children.

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini The company is also blocking image generation entirely from non-subscribers. XAI logo dislpayed on a screen and Grok account on X displayed on a phone screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in London, Great Britain on July 9, 2025. X says it is changing its policies around Grok's image-editing abilities following a multi-week outcry over the chatbot repeatedly being accused of generating sexualized images of children and nonconsensual nudity. In an update shared from the @Safety account on X, the company said it has "implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis." The new safeguards, according to X, will apply to all users regardless of whether they pay for Grok.