Meta Ordered to Pay $942 Million After Court Finds Child Safety Failures

Meta has been ordered to pay a combined $942 million in penalties in a landmark New Mexico case over the safety of children on Facebook and Instagram, deepening the legal pressure on one of the world's biggest social media companies.

The latest ruling, issued by New Mexico District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid, adds $567 million to a $375 million penalty imposed earlier in the same case after a jury found that Meta violated state consumer protection laws by misrepresenting the safety of its platforms for young users. Together, the rulings represent the largest child-safety judgment against Meta to date.

The case was brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who accused Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram in ways that encouraged young people to spend more time on the platforms while failing to adequately address risks including sexual exploitation and damage to children's mental health.

Judge Biedscheid found that Meta's platforms constituted a public nuisance, concluding that the company had contributed significantly to harms affecting young people in the state. The court also ordered changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate for minors, including stronger age-verification measures, limits on usage and additional protections against inappropriate contact with adults and misuse of Meta's artificial-intelligence tools.

A substantial portion of the latest financial award is intended to address the harm identified by the court. About $420 million is expected to support treatment and community-based programmes for young people, while other funds will go towards prevention and measures aimed at reducing future harm.

The ruling comes at a particularly difficult time for Meta. The company has faced a growing wave of lawsuits from US states, families and school districts alleging that its platforms were deliberately designed to keep young users engaged despite evidence of potential harm. More than 40 states and more than 1,300 school districts are involved in related litigation against social media companies, according to Reuters.

Meta has rejected the allegations and said it plans to appeal the New Mexico decision. The company maintains that it has invested heavily in child-safety systems and disputes the court's characterisation of its platforms and practices. Meta's own safety centre says the company uses technology to detect and remove child exploitation material and has introduced tools designed to protect teenagers from unwanted contact and harmful interactions.

The New Mexico judgment also arrives as Meta faces another major legal battle over allegations concerning young users. This week, the company reached a settlement with dozens of US states over claims that Facebook and Instagram were designed to encourage addictive use among teenagers and contributed to mental-health problems. The agreement could cost Meta up to $18 billion over a decade and includes restrictions such as daily usage limits, overnight access controls and stronger parental protections. Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of that settlement.

The two developments are separate, but together they illustrate the rapidly changing legal environment surrounding social media and children. While the multi-state settlement is intended to resolve a broad group of claims, New Mexico pursued its own case and secured a verdict that requires Meta to make specific changes to its platforms within the state.

The financial penalty is significant, but the operational requirements could prove more consequential over time. The New Mexico order puts particular emphasis on limiting young users' exposure to potentially harmful interactions and making it harder for children to circumvent age restrictions. That approach reflects a growing shift among regulators and courts away from simply asking whether platforms remove harmful material and towards examining how the platforms themselves are designed.

For Meta, the case is another warning that child safety is no longer being treated solely as a matter of platform policy. Courts and regulators are increasingly prepared to impose direct financial and operational consequences when they conclude that technology companies have failed to protect young users. The broader significance extends beyond Meta: if the New Mexico judgment survives appeal and similar cases produce comparable outcomes, the way social media platforms design products for children could face some of the most substantial changes since the rise of Facebook and Instagram.