Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg leaves the Federal Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles after defending the company in a landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles, United States, on February 19, 2026.
Jon Putman | Anadolu | Getty Images
The National Parent Teacher Association is splitting with Meta as the social media giant’s high-profile child-safety court cases unfold.
Yvonne Johnson, the president of the influential education-focused nonprofit, said in a letter to members obtained by CNBC on Friday that the organization 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 in the February letter.
Johnson didn’t disclose how much funding the National PTA received from Meta.
The social media giant is facing trials in both California and New Mexico that accuse Meta of misleading the public about the safety of apps like Instagram.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified this week in Los Angeles Superior Court in a trial involving a plaintiff dubbed KGM, who alleges that she became addicted to apps like Instagram and YouTube due to certain design features, thus suffering great mental anguish.
Meta is also involved in a separate, ongoing trial in New Mexico where the state’s attorney general has alleged that Meta failed to safeguard its apps from online predators.
The company has denied the allegations in both of those cases.
Meta declined to comment. CNBC has reached out to the National PTA for any additional comment.
The National PTA and Meta “have had a funding relationship since 2017,” Johnson wrote, saying that the previous agreement ended on Dec. 31, 2025.
Sharon Winkler, a founding member of child-safety advocacy coalition Parents for Safe Online Spaces, or ParentsSOS, said in a statement that Zuckerberg’s testimony showed that the National PTA “made the right choice to end its partnership.”
“For years, his company has deliberately addicted children to its social media products,” Winkler said. “As a result of Zuckerberg’s greed and relentless pursuit of market share, countless children have been harmed, and families like ours have been destroyed.”
ParentsSOS said it also urged the National PTA to “end its other Big Tech partnerships, including Discord, Google, and TikTok,” due to child safety and well-being concerns.
Those tech companies, and others, are also involved in multiple lawsuits around the country over similar allegations related to the design and features of their respective services that plaintiffs claim pose serious harms to the mental health of young users and compromise their safety.
The split comes a few months after the tech watchdog organization Tech Transparency Project published a report detailing the relationship between Meta and the National PTA, which the TTP characterized as part of a broader effort by the social media giant to shape the public narrative on child safety pertaining to apps like Instagram.
″As Meta has come under growing pressure over its impact on kids and their well-being, the company has responded with a range of tactics to influence the public debate,” TTP wrote at the time, as CNBC reported.
The National PTA told CNBC in a statement at the time that the organization accepted sponsorship from Meta so the social media giant could have a “seat at the table” and be a “strong, clear voice for parents and children.”
“Our collaboration with Meta provides an opportunity to help inform families about safety on its apps and the available tools (e.g., parental controls, age-gated features) and resources (e.g., parent’s guides, online safety centers),” the National PTA said at the time.
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