New Mexico Court Orders Meta to Pay $567 Million for Youth Mental Health Services

A New Mexico state court has directed Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to allocate $567 million toward remedying damage inflicted on minors through its social media services. Judge Bryan Biedcheid issued the ruling Thursday as part of the second phase of a significant legal victory prosecutors achieved against the technology company in March.

The judgment designates $420 million of the total award for treatment and therapeutic services available to young people harmed by the platforms. The remaining funds will support educational campaigns, prevention initiatives, diagnostic screening programs and related expenditures across a five-year period.

Jurors in the first phase of litigation had previously imposed $375 million in civil penalties on Meta after determining the company deliberately jeopardized children’s psychological well-being while concealing knowledge of child sexual exploitation occurring on its services. Prosecutors sought substantial operational reforms during the second phase, requesting the court mandate restrictions on habit-forming design elements, enhanced age-verification systems and stricter privacy safeguards as default settings.

The court determined that federal child privacy legislation restricts Meta’s ability to implement age-verification mechanisms for users under 13. The Children’s Online Privacy Act, known as COPPA, prevents judicial orders requiring the company to collect personal identification data from minors or subject them to passive monitoring for verification purposes.

Judges further concluded that mandating age verification for Meta exclusively, without similar requirements for competing platforms, would impose disproportionate and unfair disadvantages on the company. The Department of Justice and Meta have been contacted for responses to the decision.