Mexico: A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay $567 million to address the harm its platforms have caused young people.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid issued the ruling in the second phase of a landmark case brought by New Mexico authorities. Of the total amount, $420 million will fund treatment services for young people.
The remaining funds will support awareness and prevention programs, screening services and other measures over the next five years.
The latest order comes on top of $375 million in civil penalties awarded by a jury in March. The jury found that Meta knowingly contributed to harm to children’s mental health and failed to properly disclose what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
That brings Meta’s total financial liability in the New Mexico case to $942 million. The second phase of the case focused on changes Meta must make to improve safety for children and teenagers. Prosecutors sought tighter controls on addictive platform features, stronger age verification and better safeguards against child sexual exploitation.
The court ordered Meta to make several changes to Facebook and Instagram. The platforms must regularly display banners and information screens explaining safety features, privacy tools and ways users can deal with inappropriate comments. Meta will also have to support an educational campaign in New Mexico, subject to state review.
New rules for age verification
The judge stopped short of ordering Meta to introduce mandatory age verification for all children, citing federal privacy protections under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.
Instead, Meta must continue improving its age-assurance technology in New Mexico. The company already uses artificial intelligence and other signals, including users’ connections and the content they view and share, to estimate their age.
Meta has also been ordered to develop a dedicated model to identify users who may be under 13 within the next two years.
If Meta estimates that a Facebook or Instagram user in New Mexico is under 13, the company must request proof of age. Users identified as under 13, or under 18 when their exact age cannot be determined, must be treated as being in the relevant age group until they verify their age.
Meta must also work with schools or a child-safety organisation to establish a reporting system that allows school staff to flag users who may be under 13. Personal information collected from users under 13 must be deleted.
The company will be required to submit progress reports twice a year detailing its compliance with the court’s orders.
More legal challenges ahead
The New Mexico ruling comes as Meta faces a growing number of lawsuits over the impact of social media on children.
Later this month, the company is expected to face a federal trial in Oakland, California, involving the first four of 29 states that sued Meta in 2023. The states accuse the company of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram features in ways that encouraged children to become dependent on the platforms.
Eight other states have brought separate cases in their own courts, including Tennessee, where a trial is already underway.
Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube parent Google also face lawsuits from families of four teenagers who died by suicide. The families allege that years of harmful experiences on the platforms contributed to their deaths.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said that the latest ruling sends a clear warning to technology companies that they can be held responsible when their products put children at risk.
Meta said it plans to appeal. The company maintains that it works to protect users and has challenged claims that its platforms knowingly put young people in danger.
