A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta Platforms to pay $567 million to address harm caused to children from Facebook and Instagram, expanding the financial and operational consequences of a landmark case over the social media giant’s handling of safety for young users.
The ruling, issued Thursday by District Judge Bryan Biedscheid, requires the company to establish a fund aimed at treating and preventing mental health harms linked to its platforms. Of the total, about $420 million will go toward treatment services for children and teenagers, while the remainder will support prevention, screening, and public awareness programs over the next five years.
Recommended Stories
Biedscheid compared Meta’s effect on youth to pollution from a factory in his ruling.
“The Court considers Meta’s platforms to be analogous to the factory, the advertising and other content displayed on those platforms to be what is produced by the factory, and the psychological harm to and sexual exploitation of children to be the pollution that must be abated,” the ruling said.
The new award comes on top of $375 million in civil penalties a New Mexico jury ordered in March after finding Meta violated the state’s consumer protection law by misleading users about the safety of Facebook and Instagram for children and knowingly contributing to harms involving youth mental health. Together, the rulings bring Meta’s liability in the case to $942 million.
Beyond the financial penalty, Biedscheid ordered Meta to implement a series of changes intended to better protect minors. Those measures include improving age-verification efforts, detection of underage accounts, enhancing protections against child sexual exploitation, and changes to platform features that critics say encourage excessive use by young people. The court also directed Meta to provide regular reports documenting its compliance with the order.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, whose office brought the lawsuit in 2023, called the decision a significant victory for child safety and said it could serve as a model for similar cases nationwide. The lawsuit accused Meta of designing addictive products, exposing children to harmful content and predators, and failing to adequately safeguard young users.
Meta said it plans to appeal the ruling.
In a statement, the company said it remains confident in its efforts to protect teenagers online and argued the lawsuit misrepresented its safety practices.
FAMILIES SUE FOUR TECH GIANTS OVER TEENAGERS’ DEATHS BY SUICIDE
“We disagree with the ruling and will appeal,” the statement said. “We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”
The case is among the most consequential legal challenges facing Meta as the company confronts growing scrutiny from states, school districts, and families that argue social media platforms have contributed to worsening mental health. Similar lawsuits against major social media companies are pending across the United States, seeking damages and sweeping changed to how platforms are designed and operated.
