Who’s CEO? New Mexico Attorney General Calls on Mark Zuckerberg to Stop Misleading Parents with False PG-13 Content Moderation Claims

Albuquerque, NM – Today, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri demanding that Instagram stop misleading parents with false PG-13 content moderation claims. The New Mexico Department of Justice sued Meta for misleading the public about the dangers of its platforms and for its design choices that put children at risk of sexual abuse, human trafficking, and mental health harms. The trial is scheduled to begin in February.

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“I take issue with Meta’s false claims that it will moderate content on Teen Accounts based on PG-13 movie ratings,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “Meta’s misappropriation of the PG-13 label suggests a level of oversight that does not exist on the platform — making this announcement a dangerous promotional stunt that lulls parents into a false sense of security about the risks their children face when they use Instagram.”

“To protect young users in New Mexico and across the country, Meta must stop marketing Teen Account content as ‘PG-13’ and actually implement meaningful safety protections for children,” he continued.

Attorney General Torrez is demanding that Meta implement meaningful protections for children, including:

• Promptly and broadly enacting effective age verification
• Removing bad actors from the platform
• Addressing harmful algorithms that proactively serve dangerous content; and
• Resolving the safety risks created by end-to-end encryption.

A copy of the letter can be found here.