Major Blow to Meta: $567M Penalty Over Child Mental Health Harms

By Staff, Agencies

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay $567 million into a fund aimed at addressing mental health harms linked to its platforms among children.

The ruling comes after a landmark trial in March, when a jury found Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and failed to disclose what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms, imposing a maximum $375 million penalty. The latest decision raises Meta’s total liability in the case to $942 million.

Under the ruling, $420 million will fund treatment services for young people in New Mexico, while the remaining funds will support awareness campaigns, prevention programs, screening services, and other measures over five years.

Meanwhile, the court ordered Meta to make changes to reduce harmful platform features, strengthen age verification, improve privacy protections, and address child exploitation risks.

Accordingly, Facebook and Instagram must also add clearer information screens explaining safety tools and reporting options, with the measures subject to state review.

The court rejected mandatory age verification for all users under 13, citing federal privacy laws and concerns that imposing such requirements only on Meta would be unfair.

Instead, the company was ordered to improve its age-assurance systems, including AI-based tools that estimate users’ ages through activity signals, and develop a model specifically aimed at identifying users under 13.

Additionally, Meta must request age verification from users in New Mexico it believes may be under 13, treat uncertain cases as minors until verified, cooperate with schools or child safety groups on reporting systems, delete data collected from underage users, and provide compliance updates twice a year.

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez praised the ruling, saying it holds one of the world’s largest technology companies accountable for practices that put young people at risk.

However, Meta rejected the decision, saying it plans to appeal and maintains that it works to protect users from harmful content and bad actors.

Although the $942 million liability represents only a small portion of Meta’s roughly $60 billion annual profit in 2025, the ruling adds to growing legal pressure on the company.

Meanwhile, Meta faces similar lawsuits across the United States, including claims that Instagram contributes to issues such as compulsive use, depression, and eating disorders among teenagers.

The New Mexico case could mark the beginning of wider challenges for Meta, as states seek ways to regulate social media harms without banning platforms entirely.