The first two "digital citizenship" training sessions will be held Monday and Tuesday in Santa Fe, with another scheduled Aug. 1 in Taos.
"In today's digital age, it is imperative that we provide students and families with the tools to navigate the online world safely," Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero announced in a news release this week.
The sessions will be funded by a $453,000 grant from the Google New Mexico Kids Initiative as a result of a 2021 settlement between the New Mexico Department of Justice and Google LLC.
In 2020, then-Attorney General Hector Balderas filed a federal lawsuit against the tech giant, accusing Google of collecting personal information from children under 13 — including locations, browsing histories, voice recordings, passwords and contact lists — from devices they used at school. The move, Balderas argued at the time, violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
Google settled the suit, as well as another civil complaint regarding consumer protection laws, in December 2021. The company agreed in the settlement to create and fund the Google New Mexico Kids Initiative, which set aside millions for the education, privacy and safety of children in the state.
Keeping children safe online remains a top priority for Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who in December 2023 filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. for directing inappropriate content toward teens and allowing adult predators access to them online.
New Mexico Department of Justice spokeswoman Lauren Rodriguez wrote in an email the department is "proud to see our settlement dollars at work" and is "encouraged by grant recipients furthering digital literacy and safety."
"The New Mexico Department of Justice has made significant efforts to hold social media companies accountable for the harms they pose to children. ... It takes a community to combat online harms and prevent exploitation and abuse," Rodriguez said.
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