New Mexico Court Orders Meta to Pay $567 Million, Mandates Sweeping Teen Safety Overhaul on Facebook and Instagram

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 to pay $567 million and implement sweeping new protections for teenage users, finding that Facebook and Instagram contributed to the state's youth mental health crisis. The ruling, handed down Thursday by Judge Bryan Biedscheid, comes on top of a $375 million civil penalty imposed by a jury in March, bringing Meta's total liability in the landmark case to nearly $942 million.

The bulk of the new funding—$420 million—will be directed toward treatment services for young people in New Mexico, with the remainder allocated to awareness and prevention efforts, screening services, and other costs over the next five years.

"For years, Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 knew its platforms were harming New Mexico's kids, from feeding a youth mental health crisis to connecting predators with children, and it chose engagement and profit over their safety," said New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in a statement. "Today, Meta is paying for that choice."

Structural Changes Mandated by the Court

The second phase of the trial, which began in May and did not involve a jury, focused on whether Meta (搜索)搜索该公司's platforms constituted a "public nuisance" under New Mexico law. Judge Biedscheid drew a comparison between the alleged harms and industrial pollution, writing that "just as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta's platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms."

The court ordered Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 to implement a series of youth-safety measures, including monthly limits on teens' use of Facebook and Instagram, restrictions on notifications, tighter controls on adults contacting minors, safeguards for AI chatbots, and enhanced reviews of child sexual abuse reports. The company must also build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices, and tools to address inappropriate comments.

Age Verification and Privacy Requirements

On the issue of age verification, the court acknowledged that federal children's privacy laws prevent Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. The judge noted that ordering verification only for Meta and not other social media companies would be "inequitable and unduly injurious" to the company.

Instead, Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 must continue improving its age-assurance tools in New Mexico, including using artificial intelligence to determine users' ages based on signals such as their friend networks and the types of content they post and consume. The company must also attempt to develop a dedicated "under-13-years-of-age prediction model" within the next two years.

Additionally, Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 must request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If a user is determined to be under 13, or under 18 without a specific age estimate, Meta must treat them accordingly until age verification is provided. 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 collected on users under 13.

A Legal Blueprint for Other States

Attorney General Torrez characterized the ruling as a "blueprint" for other states pursuing similar litigation. "For the first time, a court has ruled that a social media giant can be held liable for building products that endanger children and has ordered the structural changes needed to fix it," he said. "New Mexico led the way in the courtroom. Now other states, and other countries confronting the same crisis, have a roadmap they can follow."

More than 40 states and over 1,300 school districts have already filed public nuisance lawsuits against social media companies, seeking damages and court orders requiring changes to their products and practices.

Meta (搜索)搜索该公司's Response and Broader Legal Exposure

A Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 spokesperson said the company "disagrees with the ruling" and plans to appeal. "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," the spokesperson said. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts."

The total amount Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 is responsible for represents a small fraction of its annual profit, which was approximately $60 billion in 2025. Nevertheless, the ruling marks another setback as the company faces a wave of accusations from families of children harmed by social media. Meta is currently embroiled in lawsuits in multiple other states, including a trial in Tennessee where the state has accused the company of disregarding internal warnings about teenagers' compulsive use of Instagram, which has been linked to eating disorders (搜索)搜索该疾病 and depression (搜索)搜索该疾病. The company is also preparing for a trial later this month in federal court in Oakland, California.

Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University focusing on social media and cybersecurity, said the New Mexico outcome could be the first of many. "America is not going to pass a law that bans social media," Edelson said. "But if companies like Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 know they're causing harm to users by product design, the states are finally finding a way to rein this in."

The March trial was the first to find Meta (搜索)搜索该公司 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. 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.