New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $567 million in kids online safety case

A New Mexico judge on Thursday ordered Meta to pay $567 million and overhaul how youth use its platform, the latest development in a long-running lawsuit focused on negative impacts of social media on children.

The money will be used to create a fund to mitigate social media harms, including by carving out $420 million for treatment for New Mexico youth who have been hurt on the platforms. The balance of the money will be used to raise public awareness and prevent future harms.

The case is considered a bellwether because it is the first of dozens brought against Meta by state attorneys general.

In March, a jury hearing the New Mexico case issued a separate $375 million fine, finding that Meta deceived users about Instagram and Facebook’s safety and facilitated sexual exploitation of minors.

“Although Meta is not alone in this regard, its social media platforms are a significant contributing factor to the current mental health crisis among New Mexico’s youth established by the substantial evidence in this case,” Santa Fe-based state court judge Judge Bryan Biedscheid wrote in the opinion, which labeled Meta a “public nuisance.”

The judge also ruled that Meta cannot send New Mexico youth push notifications between 10 pm and 7 am and must not let youth users engage with its platforms for more than 90 hours a month. 

Facebook and Instagram also must create public awareness screens that explain their child protection features and other relevant safety information, the judge ruled.

A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement that the company disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal.

“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,” the statement said. “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

In March, a California jury found Meta and YouTube were responsible for a young girl’s social media addiction, which allegedly affected her mental health. The California jury found in favor of the girl and directed Meta to pay her $6 million.

Meta also faces at least 1,200 lawsuits from school districts and in May settled with a Kentucky district which had argued it must help fund mental health and academic interventions for kids damaged by its platforms.