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

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, whose office won the first jury verdict against Meta over child safety anywhere in the country, told Fortune the settlement Meta struck this week with 51 other attorneys general doesn’t go as far as what his state already secured on its own.

“We had hoped a nationwide settlement might echo the full strength of the protections New Mexico secured in court—including a direct ban on romantic and sexualized AI chatbot interactions with minors and stronger safeguards against adults targeting kids in private messages,” Torrez told Fortune. “But this settlement still represents real progress and adds momentum to finish the job of protecting kids online.”

It’s a notable crack in what has otherwise been a unified front. Torrez is uniquely positioned to make the comparison, since New Mexico is the one place where a court, rather than a settlement, has already decided what Meta owes children.

Torrez’s office won a jury verdict against Meta in March, when a Santa Fe jury found the company ...