National PTA ends Meta partnership over revelations in child-safety trials

Feb. 23, 2026 — The National Parent Teacher Association has ended its partnership with Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, due to revelations that have come to light as part of a series of landmark child-safety lawsuits.

The social media and AI company is facing trials in both California and New Mexico that accuse Meta of misleading the public about the safety of apps like Instagram.

CNBC reported on Friday that PTA President Yvonne Johnson sent a letter earlier this month to members informing them that the national group will not “pursue renewal funding from Meta to support PTA Connected for 2026,” referring to an initiative intended to help educate parents, children and teachers about digital safety tools and resources.

“As you may have seen, there has been heightened public scrutiny and legal cases involving companies including Meta regarding digital safety that have created new challenges, challenges that have proved both time-consuming and difficult for National PTA,” Johnson wrote.

algorithm addiction on trial

Those lawsuits have brought global attention to the inner workings of Meta, Google, and other tech corporations—specifically to the intentional design of social media algorithms crafted to hook kids and keep them scrolling.

Earlier this month one of the trials opened in California, with the plaintiffs accusing Meta of creating “addiction machines” that harmed children. In his opening argument, attorney Mark Lanier argued that his client, plaintiff "KGM", suffered from mental health issues as a result of her social media addiction.

"These companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose," Lanier said.

Another independent nonprofit group, the Tech Oversight Project, has been following the trials closely. They post regular updates on evidence and testimony disclosed throughout the process.

Ending the ‘spin machine’ partnership

The PTA’s decision followed last year’s release of a report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) that brought attention to what TTP called “Meta’s Spin Machine on Kids and Social Media.” Meta had provided an undisclosed amount of funding to the National PTA since 2017.

“The goal is to counter growing concerns that sites like Instagram can be harmful to teens’ health and safety,” wrote TTP.

The report stated:

“A new investigation by the Tech Transparency Project sheds light on the extensive and often opaque apparatus that Meta uses to counter growing concerns that sites like Instagram can be harmful to kids’ health and safety.

In addition to funding a network of child safety groups, the company created a "Trust, Transparency & Control Labs" unit that publishes reports in support of its kid-focused products. Meta has also funded academic papers that find positive use cases for Instagram, helping to support the company’s contention that research is inconclusive about whether social media is harmful.

These tactics all appear to have one goal: Stopping or slowing efforts to regulate social media in ways that could hurt Meta’s bottom line.”

read the full report

The full Tech Transparency Project report, published in Aug. 2025, can be accessed by selecting the image below.

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