A New Mexico court has ordered Meta to pay $567 million and overhaul how its platforms operate for young users after ruling the company bears responsibility for harming children's mental health through Facebook and Instagram. According to reports from Reuters, Judge Bryan Biedscheid of the New Mexico First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe ruled that Meta had created a public nuisance within the state, siding with Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who had accused the company of designing its products to be addictive to young users while failing to adequately protect children from sexual exploitation on its platforms. The ruling came five months after a $375 million state jury verdict in March 2026 that found Meta violated the state's consumer protection law by misrepresenting the safety of Facebook and Instagram for young users. The total amount Meta is responsible for - $942 million - represents a small fraction of the company's annual profit of approximately $60 billion in 2025.
Of the total sum, $420 million will go toward funding treatment services for young people, with the remainder directed toward awareness campaigns, prevention programmes and screening services over the next five years. As reported by Reuters, this represents a significant financial commitment by Meta to address the mental health impacts of its platforms on young users. The court's decision establishes a comprehensive framework for addressing the company's role in youth safety issues, with the decree remaining in place for five years under the judge's order. The ruling notably stopped short of ordering changes to Meta's underlying content-recommendation algorithm, with the judge noting that such a requirement would likely raise First Amendment and Section 230 concerns under US law.
The judge ordered a series of youth-safety changes to be implemented under a five-year decree, including monthly limits on how much time teenagers can spend on Facebook and Instagram, restrictions on push notifications during school hours and late at night, tighter controls preventing unknown adults from contacting minors, mandatory default privacy settings for teen accounts, and stronger safeguards preventing users under 18 from engaging in romantic or sexualised interactions with Meta's AI chatbots. According to Reuters, the company was also directed to strengthen its review process for child sexual abuse material reports. The court also ordered Meta to build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices and tools to address inappropriate content, for example, and display them regularly. These changes and an educational campaign in New Mexico would be subject to review by the state. Additionally, Meta must request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13, and must partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13.
The court ordered Meta to continue improving its age assurance tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people's age based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume. According to Reuters, Meta must also attempt to develop a dedicated 'under-13-years-of-age prediction model' in the next two years. The court noted that federal children's privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13, citing the Children's Online Privacy Act (COPPA) which means it cannot order Meta to request children to submit personal data or be passively tracked online, even for age verification purposes. The court also stated that ordering Meta to verify children's ages for only Meta and not other social media companies would be "inequitable and unduly injurious" to the company. Meta must also delete personal information it has collected on users under 13 and report on its progress twice a year on how it's complying with the abatement measures.
This penalty builds on an earlier verdict from March 2026, when a state jury found Meta liable on all counts in the first phase of the trial, ordering the company to pay $375 million in civil damages after determining it had knowingly engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices concerning child safety. As reported by Reuters, Thursday's ruling closed out the second phase of the case, with the New Mexico case adding to a growing wave of litigation facing Meta and other social media companies nationwide. The case is being closely watched as states, municipalities and school districts across the country pursue similar claims seeking to force changes at the industry level. More than 1,300 school districts and more than 40 states have sued social media corporations for public nuisance, requesting both penalties and court orders forcing changes to their methods and products. The ruling notably stopped short of ordering changes to Meta's underlying content-recommendation algorithm, with the judge noting that such a requirement would likely raise First Amendment and Section 230 concerns under US law.
In a statement following the ruling, Attorney General Torrez said the decision sends an unmistakable message that companies will be held accountable when their product designs knowingly put children at risk. According to Reuters, Meta said it works hard to keep users safe and remains confident in its record on teen safety, adding that it plans to appeal the decision. The company stated it has been working to identify and remove harmful content from its platforms and remains confident in its record of protecting teens online. Meta also plans to defend itself against claims that misrepresent the facts. The ruling comes amid growing scrutiny of social media companies' impact on young users' mental health across the country, with Meta, along with TikTok, Snap and Google's YouTube, recently sued by families of four teenagers who died by suicide over what they describe as "years of escalating harms" from using their platforms. As Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University focusing on social media and cybersecurity, noted, "What comes out of New Mexico is the first of many dominoes that will fall for Meta."
