Meta faces expensive child safety reckoning

Mark Zuckerberg arrives to the Los Angeles superior court on 18 February 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Mark Zuckerberg arrives to the Los Angeles superior court on 18 February 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Major legal battles against Meta over child safety are playing out in courts across the US - and the tech giant is losing. Recent rulings raise big questions about social media companies' responsibility to their youngest users. Meanwhile, more key executives have jumped ship from Google as it battles OpenAI and Anthropic in the race for AI dominance, and Meta's smart glasses face a fearsome backlash.