A New Mexico state court has ordered Meta to pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund, finding the company responsible for harming children's well-being through its platforms. This ruling, issued on Thursday by Judge Bryan Biedscheid, also mandates significant changes to how Meta operates its platforms for young users. The bulk of the money, $420 million, is earmarked for treatment services for young people, with the remainder allocated for awareness, prevention, screening services, and other costs over the next five years.
This $567 million penalty is in addition to a $375 million civil penalty Meta was already ordered to pay in March, bringing the total in New Mexico to $942 million. The initial penalty was for knowingly harming children’s mental health and concealing information about child sexual exploitation. While a former European vice president of Twitter (now X) characterized the New Mexico fine as a "drop in the ocean" for Meta, given the company's $61 billion in revenue from April to June, the collective legal challenges are significant.
Prosecutors also pushed for fundamental operational changes at Meta. The judge's order includes ensuring no account of a user under 18 is recommended to an adult, and no adult can message an underage user. Other mandated changes include banning underage users from sending or receiving nudity, implementing a "one-strike policy" for adult users involved in child sexual exploitation, eliminating "like" counts for users under 18, banning push notifications for underage users during specific evening and school hours, and implementing a mandatory usage limit of 90 cumulative hours per month across Instagram and Facebook for these users.
