Court Orders Meta to Pay $567 Million to Address Children's Mental Health
· Telemundo McAllen (KTLM)
A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to pay $567 million to compensate for the harm caused to young people by its platforms, marking the second phase of a historic trial. Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled Thursday night that the majority of the funds, $420 million, will be allocated to treatment services for youth, while the remainder will be invested in awareness and prevention, screening services, and other expenses over the next five years. This new penalty adds to the $375 million in civil fines imposed on Meta in March after the jury found that the company deliberately harmed children's mental health and concealed information about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. In the second phase, prosecutors requested the judge to impose fundamental changes on Meta aimed at controlling addictive features, improving age verification, and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and increased oversight. The total amount Meta must pay—$942 million—represents a small fraction of its annual profits, which were around $60 billion in 2025. Investors appeared to downplay the New Mexico ruling in after-hours trading on Thursday, causing Meta's shares to drop less than 0.5% to $589.44. However, the ruling represents another setback for Meta, which is facing a wave of lawsuits from thousands of families of children harmed by social media. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez stated that the ruling sends a clear message: companies will be held accountable when their product designs knowingly put children at risk. 'Today's decision is a victory for all parents who have been concerned about the impact of social media on their children and for all children who deserve to grow up in a safer digital environment,' he said in a statement. Meta announced it would appeal, stating, 'We strive to keep users safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing malicious users and harmful content. We stand by our track record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against allegations that misrepresent the facts.' The judge ordered Facebook and Instagram to create banners and informational screens to clearly explain their protective features, best practices, and tools to address inappropriate comments, for example, and to display them periodically. These changes and an educational campaign in New Mexico will be subject to state review. The court noted that federal child privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age verification tools to children under 13. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) means it cannot require Meta to ask minors for personal data or to passively track them online, even for age verification purposes. The court also indicated that ordering age verification for minors only for Meta and not for other social media companies would be 'unfair and harmful' to the company. Instead, the court ordered Meta to continue improving its age verification tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine individuals' ages based on signals such as their friends and the type of content they post and consume. Meta will also need to develop a specific age prediction model for children under 13 in the next two years. Additionally, Meta must request age verification from Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico whom it estimates to be under 13. If it determines that a user is under 13, or under 18 but cannot estimate a specific age, Meta must treat them as under 13 or under 18 until it verifies their age. The company must also partner with schools or child protection organizations to create a reporting portal where school staff can report users who may be under 13. Furthermore, it must delete any personal information it has collected about users under 13. The court also ordered Meta to report biannually on its progress in complying with the corrective measures. What emerges from New Mexico is the first of many dominoes that will fall for Meta, noted Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University specializing in social media and cybersecurity. 'The U.S. is not going to pass a law banning social media,' Edelson stated. 'But if companies like Meta know they are causing harm to users due to their product design, states are ultimately finding ways to rein this in.' This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool. A Telemundo Digital editor reviewed the translation.
AI summary · Source: Telemundo McAllen (KTLM) →
