New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez completed the Las Cruces stop of his “Keeping Kids Safe Tour” this week with meetings involving students, community organizations and New Mexico State University leadership, followed by a public town hall at Doña Ana Community College.
Source: NMSU News (via Facebook), N.M. Department of Justice
Photos: Courtesy
The Las Cruces visit was the third stop on the statewide tour, following earlier events in Farmington and Gallup.
Torrez began his local visit at New Mexico State University, where he met with Humans 4 Humans, a student organization focused on raising awareness of human trafficking and its prevention.
The attorney general also met with FYI+, a Las Cruces organization providing services to young people and families, including housing and other resources for young New Mexicans leaving difficult family situations or the foster care system.
The visit culminated Wednesday with a public town hall at Doña Ana Community College’s East Mesa Campus. State Sen. Carrie Hamblen joined Torrez for the discussion, which included online child safety and legislative proposals Torrez intends to pursue during the upcoming New Mexico legislative session.
“I am grateful to everyone in the Las Cruces community who took the time to share their experiences, their concerns and the work they are doing to support New Mexico’s young people,” Torrez said following the visit.
“From students raising awareness about human trafficking to educators, parents and community organizations working to give young people the support they need, I heard firsthand about both the challenges facing families and the solutions that are making a difference,” he said.
Torrez said those conversations would help inform proposed legislation involving protections for children and consumers and support for families.
The online-safety discussion follows a major New Mexico court ruling involving Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
A New Mexico jury found Meta liable in March for 75,000 violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act and imposed $375 million in civil penalties. In August, the First Judicial District Court also found Meta’s platforms constituted a public nuisance in New Mexico and ordered the company to provide $567 million toward addressing the youth mental health crisis.
The combined financial exposure from the two phases of the case totals $942 million, according to the New Mexico Department of Justice.
The August judgment also requires changes to Facebook and Instagram in New Mexico for five years, including strengthened protections for teen accounts, safeguards against sextortion and child sexual exploitation, default privacy protections for minors and restrictions on overnight push notifications for users younger than 18.
The court stopped short of imposing the more extensive age-verification requirements sought by the state. Torrez has said he intends to pursue legislation addressing age verification and broader social media safety.
Torrez’s Las Cruces visit also extended beyond online safety. The attorney general met with NMSU President Valerio Ferme and recognized the university for what the Department of Justice described as implementation of all recommendations previously made by the department to combat hazing on college campuses.
The Attorney General’s Office said its next “Keeping Kids Safe Tour” stop is planned for northern New Mexico later this month.
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