A US judge in New Mexico on Thursday ordered Meta to pay a further $567 million (£421 million) for failing to warn the public about the dangers its platforms pose to children, in what stands as the largest ruling against the company over child safety to date.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled that the social media giant amounts to a “public nuisance” akin to air pollution and ordered that the money be placed in a fund aimed at reducing future harm.
The penalty comes on top of $375 million in fines already imposed on Meta earlier in the case, bringing the total to $942 million. The judge likened Meta to a factory, describing its advertising and content as its product and the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children as the resulting pollution that needs to be addressed.
A Meta spokesperson said Thursday that the company disagreed with the ruling and intends to appeal, adding that Meta works hard to keep people safe on its platforms and remains confident in its record of protecting teens online. The company gave a similar response when it said it would appeal the earlier $375 million verdict, which marked the first time a US state had successfully sued Meta over child safety.
Meta is currently facing thousands of similar lawsuits across the United States. Beyond the two New Mexico rulings, the company also lost a comparable case in Los Angeles earlier this year.
The New Mexico case originated from a 2023 lawsuit filed by the state’s attorneys, who argued Meta should be held liable for exposing children to sexually explicit material and sexual predators through its platforms. In the trial’s first phase, Meta was found to have repeatedly violated the state’s Unfair Practices Act, with its recommendation algorithms found to have directed young users toward harmful content and contacts.
In this second phase, Judge Biedscheid determined that Meta’s harms rose to the level of a public nuisance a health and safety issue so widespread it affects the general public. He wrote that the harmful effects of Meta’s platforms extend beyond the platforms themselves into the wider internet and the real world, creating a broader societal burden on children, families, schools, hospitals and law enforcement.
The fund Meta must establish will support efforts to address the wide-ranging impact of these harms. Of the total, $420 million will go toward treating harm already caused, funding clinical and behavioural health programmes and professionals. Another portion will fund awareness and prevention training, including for teachers and health professionals dealing with social media-related harm to children.
Judge Biedscheid also ordered Meta to implement additional safeguards, including ensuring accounts belonging to users under 18 are not recommended to adults, barring adults from messaging underage users, prohibiting the sending or receiving of nudity by underage users, and enforcing a one-strike policy against adult users who engage in child sexual exploitation.
Meta was further ordered to:
- Remove “like” counts for users under 18
- Suspend push notifications for these users between 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM daily, and during school hours (8:00 AM–3:00 PM) on weekdays during the school year
- Cap usage for underage users at 90 cumulative hours per month across Instagram and Facebook roughly three hours a day
Another major trial against Meta is set to begin in California next week, with nearly three dozen US state attorneys general suing the company over alleged violations of child privacy laws.