Meta has faced one of the toughest court rulings in the company’s history over the safety of minors. A New Mexico judge has ordered the tech giant to pay $567 million into a fund aimed at addressing the harm caused to children and teenagers by its platforms.
Judge Brian Biedscheid of New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court ruled that Meta’s conduct constituted a public nuisance and found that Facebook and Instagram had contributed significantly to mental health problems among young users.
The ruling is not just about money. The court has also ordered Meta to introduce additional safeguards for minors over the next five years.
Nearly $1 Billion in Financial Penalties
The new $567 million payment comes on top of the $375 million Meta was ordered to pay following a jury verdict in March 2026.
At the time, the jury found Meta liable under New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act for failing to adequately protect minors from sexual exploitation and for misleading the public about the safety of its platforms.
That brings Meta’s total financial penalties in the case to $942 million.
Of the new $567 million payment, approximately $420 million will go toward treatment for young people. The remaining funds will support prevention, education, screening and other related programs over a five-year period.
Facebook and Instagram Face New Restrictions
The financial penalties are only part of the ruling. Meta will also have to change several aspects of how Facebook and Instagram operate for users under 18 in New Mexico.
The measures include:
- stronger age-verification systems;
- limiting minors’ use of Facebook and Instagram to 90 hours per month across both platforms;
- disabling most push notifications for minors during nighttime and school hours;
- hiding like counts by default for users under 18;
- additional measures to identify and remove accounts belonging to children under 13;
- educational notifications and other tools designed to reduce risks for minors;
- regular reporting on Meta’s compliance with the court’s requirements.
However, the court did not grant all of New Mexico’s requested measures. Some proposed restrictions were rejected due to First Amendment concerns and questions about their technical feasibility.
Meta Plans to Appeal
Meta has already said it disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal.
The company maintains that it continues to invest heavily in teen safety and argues that the allegations against it misrepresent the steps it has taken to protect young users.
For Meta, however, the case could have implications far beyond New Mexico. The ruling may encourage other U.S. states to pursue similar cases and increase pressure on social media companies over product design, recommendation algorithms, age verification and the protection of minors.
And this is where things get particularly interesting for Big Tech: the court has effectively demonstrated that regulators and courts can push platforms to change not only how they moderate content, but how the products themselves work — from notifications and time limits to age-verification systems.
For Meta, this is no longer just another multimillion-dollar bill. If similar cases spread to other jurisdictions, social platforms may have to fundamentally rethink how they engage with — and monetize — their youngest users.
