{"id":5182,"date":"2026-08-07T03:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5182"},"modified":"2026-08-07T03:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:05:14","slug":"new-mexico-court-orders-meta-to-pay-567m-over-harms-to-childrens-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5182","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children\u2019s mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta chief executive, outside court in Los Angeles in February. Photograph: Jill Connelly\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>
Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta chief executive, outside court in Los Angeles in February. Photograph: Jill Connelly\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children\u2019s <a href="https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5178" title="2026-27 recipient of UAE mental health<\/a> journalism fellowship announced | The National”>mental health<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruling comes as part of second phase of landmark trial that found social media company enabled harm against users<\/p>\n

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to pay $567m into a fund aimed at redressing adverse mental health impacts from the social media giant\u2019s platforms<\/p>\n

The Thursday ruling comes as a part of the second phase of a landmark trial the social media giant lost in March. At the time, a jury found that the company knowingly harmed children\u2019s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms, and imposed the maximum penalty: a $375m fine<\/p>\n

The ruling on Thursday an additional to that fine, bringing the total amount Meta is responsible for to $942m<\/p>\n

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said the bulk of the money \u2013 $420m \u2013 would be used for treatment services for young people in New Mexico. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years<\/p>\n

The March trial was the first to find Meta liable for acts committed on its platform, and followed a 2023 Guardian investigation that revealed how Facebook and Instagram had become marketplaces for child sex trafficking<\/p>\n

Several former Meta moderators told the Guardian there were instances where they flagged harmful content related to child grooming, but the cases were not escalated<\/p>\n

In the second phase of the trial, which began in May, prosecutors had asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification, and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight<\/p>\n

The judge has also ordered other changes, including that Facebook and Instagram build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices, and tools to address inappropriate comment<\/p>\n

Those changes, and an educational campaign in New Mexico, would be subject to review by the state<\/p>\n

The court said federal children\u2019s privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. The court also noted that ordering verification of children\u2019s ages only for Meta and not other social media companies would be \u201cinequitable and unduly injurious\u201d to the company<\/p>\n

Instead, the court ordered Meta to continue to improve its age-assurance tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people\u2019s age based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume. Meta must also attempt to develop a dedicated \u201cunder-13-years-of-age prediction model\u201d in the next two years<\/p>\n

Additionally, Meta should also request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If it determines a user to be under 13, or under 18 but without being able to estimate a specific age, Meta must treat the user as under 13 or under 18 until the user verifies their age<\/p>\n

The company must also partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13. And it must delete personal information it has collected on users under 13. The court also ordered Meta to report on its progress twice a year on how it is complying with the abatement measures<\/p>\n

New Mexico attorney general Ra\u00fal Torrez hailed the judgment<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world\u2019s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence,\u201d Torrez said in a statement<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Meta spokesperson said in a statement to the Guardian on Thursday that the company \u201cdisagrees with the ruling\u201d and plans to appeal<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts<\/a>,\u201d the statement continued<\/p>\n

The total amount Meta is responsible for is a small fraction of of its annual profit, which was about $60bn in 2025. Still, it represents another setback for Meta as it faces a wave of accusations from families of children harmed by social media<\/p>\n

The company is embroiled in a slew of lawsuits in other US states over its alleged harms to young people. In a trial in Tennessee that began last month, the state has accused the company of disregarding internal warnings about teenagers\u2019 compulsive use of Instagram, which has been linked to eating disorders and depression, among other adverse effects. Meta is also gearing up for a trial later this month in federal court in Oakland, California.<\/p>\n

What comes out of New Mexico is the first of many dominoes that could fall for Meta, said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University focusing on social media and cybersecurity<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica is not going to pass a law that bans social media,\u201d Edelson said. \u201cBut if companies like Meta know they\u2019re causing harm to users by product design, the states are finally finding a way to rein this in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explore more on these topicsShare
\nReuse this content<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruling comes as part of second phase of landmark trial that found social media company enabled harm against users<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[748,745,747,583,746],"class_list":["post-5182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-567m","tag-court","tag-meta","tag-mexico","tag-orders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5183,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions\/5183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}