The Meta logo is displayed on a smartphone screen placed on a reflective surface onto which the Meta AI logo is projected, in Creteil, France, on July 9, 2026. Meta announces the launch of Muse Image, its first proprietary image generation model. (Ph …
A New Mexico judge has ordered Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta to pay $567 million to confront the impact their platforms have had on young users.
What we know:
The order issued late Thursday directed $420 million toward treatment programs for young people and allocated the rest to prevention, screening and other support efforts over the next five years.
The backstory:
The ruling follows a March verdict in which jurors levied $375 million in civil penalties after concluding Meta concealed internal warnings about mental-health harms and child sexual exploitation on their platforms. Collectively, the technology company is now responsible for $942 million, only a fraction of their annual profit.
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What they're saying:
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez spoke about the message of companies being held responsible for child safety, "Today’s 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."
The other side:
"We 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," Meta released in a statement. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts."
Changes to Facebook and Instagram coming
Dig deeper:
Also in the ruling, New Mexico Judge Bryan Biedscheid directed Meta to overhaul how Facebook and Instagram present safety information, requiring recurring banners and instructional screens that explain privacy tools, protections and ways to address inappropriate interactions. Those changes will later be reviewed by the state of New Mexico.
Age verification on Meta is limited by federal privacy laws, so they cannot require children under 13 to submit personal data. So the court ordered the company to continue to improve age assurance systems in New Mexico, including using AI models that can estimate a users age based on social connections and content consumption. A "under-13-years-of-age prediction model" within two years is their ideal goal.
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Local perspective:
If Meta believes Facebook and Instagram users from New Mexico are under 13, they will have to request proof of age. If a user is deemed to be under 13, or under 18 but without being able to determine a specific age, Meta will have to treat them as being under 13 or under 18 until the age is verified by the user.
The Source: This story was written with information provided by The Associated Press. This story was reported from Orlando.