Court orders Meta to pay $567m over Facebook, Instagram’s impact on children

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay $567 million to address harms to young people linked to its social media platforms.

The ruling came in the second phase of a landmark trial in which Meta was accused of knowingly contributing to harm to children’s mental health and concealing information about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled that $420 million of the penalty will be allocated to treatment services for young people, while the remaining funds will support awareness and prevention programmes, screening services and other related costs over the next five years.

The latest penalty comes on top of the $375 million in civil penalties imposed on Meta in March after jurors found that the company knowingly harmed children and failed to adequately address risks associated with its platforms. This brings the total amount Meta has been ordered to pay in the case to $942 million.

The court also ordered Meta to make changes aimed at improving child safety, including strengthening age-assurance measures, providing clearer information about safety features and developing additional tools to identify users who may be under 13.

Meta will also be required to work with schools or a child-safety organisation to create a reporting system through which school officials can flag accounts suspected of belonging to children below the permitted age.

The company must delete personal information collected from users under 13 and provide the court with twice-yearly reports detailing its compliance with the measures.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez described the ruling as a victory for parents and children, saying it sends a strong message that technology companies can be held accountable when their products put young people at risk.

Meta, however, rejected the allegations and said it plans to appeal the decision. The company maintained that it works to protect users on its platforms and remains confident in its record of protecting teenagers online.

The ruling comes as Meta faces numerous other lawsuits over alleged harm to young users, including a separate federal case in California involving states that accuse the company of designing features on Facebook and Instagram in ways that encourage addictive use among children.