Meta Fined $567M in Landmark Child Safety Ruling

A US judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $567 million (approximately €492 million) for failing to warn the public about the dangers its platforms posed to children, marking the largest fine against the tech giant over child safety. Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled that Meta created a “public nuisance” in the state, the first time a social media company has been deemed a public nuisance under US law.

The ruling, delivered on August 6, adds to the $375 million a jury ordered Meta to pay in March in the same case, bringing the total to $942 million. The decision comes amid a wave of regulatory and legal pressure on Meta across the United States and Europe over the safety of its platforms for minors.

A Landmark Public Nuisance Ruling

Judge Biedscheid, sitting in Santa Fe, compared Meta to a factory whose “product” is advertising and content, and whose “pollution” is the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children. “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 remain confined to its platforms,” he wrote, according to BBC News.

The case stems from a 2023 lawsuit filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who accused Meta of “steering” young users toward sexually explicit content and exposing them to contact with sexual predators. In the first phase of the trial, a jury found Meta violated the state’s Unfair Practices Act by misrepresenting the safety of Facebook and Instagram for young users.

The second phase, heard over three weeks without a jury, focused solely on whether Meta’s platforms constituted a public nuisance under New Mexico law. Judge Biedscheid ruled they did, finding that the harms extend beyond the platforms themselves into the real world, creating “a common, societal burden and harm on the affected children and their families,” as well as schools, hospitals, and law enforcement.

Court-Ordered Safety Measures

The court ordered Meta to implement a sweeping set of youth-safety measures under a decree that will remain in effect for five years. According to ABC News Australia, these include:

• A 90-hour monthly usage limit for users under 18 across Instagram and Facebook (about three hours per day)
• A ban on push notifications for underage users during nighttime hours and during school hours on school days
• Elimination of “like” counts for users under 18
• A ban on underage users sending or receiving nudity
• A one-strike policy for adult users who engage in child sexual exploitation
• A rule that no account of a user under 18 should be recommended to an adult
• A ban on adults messaging underage users
• Prevention of minors engaging in “romantic or sexual” interactions with AI chatbots
• Prevention of adults using chatbots to simulate or discuss sexualized interaction with a child
• Human staff investigation of sexual abuse reports within 48 hours
• Age verification based on content consumption, with suspension of accounts suspected of being used by children under 13 if age cannot be proven

The bulk of the $567 million fine—$420 million—will fund treatment programs for harms Meta’s platforms have already caused, including clinical and behavioral health services. The remainder will go toward awareness and prevention training for teachers and health professionals, as reported by VRT NWS.

Notably, Judge Biedscheid declined to order changes to Meta’s recommendation algorithms or features like endless scrolling and autoplay, citing First Amendment protections and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, according to NRC.

Meta’s Response

Meta said it will appeal the ruling. “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal,” a company spokesperson said. “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. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

The company previously stated it would appeal the March verdict as well, which was the first time a state had successfully sued Meta over child safety issues, according to BBC News.

A Growing Legal and Regulatory Storm

The New Mexico ruling is just one front in a broader assault on Meta’s handling of youth safety. More than 40 US states and over 1,300 school districts have filed public nuisance lawsuits against social media companies. Next week, Meta faces trial in federal court in Oakland, California, over claims from 29 states that it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children and misled users about their safety. Tennessee’s separate lawsuit against Meta began trial in July.

In Europe, the regulatory pressure is equally intense. In April, the European Commission announced preliminary findings that Meta does too little to prevent children under 13 from accessing Instagram and Facebook, potentially violating the Digital Services Act, as VRT NWS reported. A fine could reach 6% of global annual revenue—over €10 billion.

In July, the Commission further found that Instagram and Facebook are designed to be addictive, with features like infinite scroll, autoplay videos, and engagement-optimized algorithms that endanger minors’ health, according to RTL Nieuws. The EU is also investigating Snapchat and TikTok.

A “Blueprint” for Global Action

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez framed the ruling as a turning point. “This is not just a judgment against one company. It is a blueprint,” he said. “Now other states, and other countries confronting the same crisis, have a road map they can follow.”

Bruce Daisley, a former European vice president of Twitter, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while the fine is “a drop in the ocean” for Meta—which posted $61 billion in revenue from April to June—it signals a broader shift. “It’s an indication that we are moving to a stage where social media is going to be tackled around the world,” he said.

The UK, Australia, and various EU member states are already moving toward stricter regulations, including age limits and bans on social media use for minors. The UK recently announced plans to block under-16s from social media and require platforms to implement nighttime restrictions for older teens.

What’s Next

Meta’s appeal of the New Mexico ruling will likely take years to resolve. Meanwhile, the company faces the California trial next week, ongoing EU investigations, and thousands of individual lawsuits winding through US courts. Meta has warned investors that legal and regulatory headwinds around youth social media issues “could have a significant impact on our operations and financial results.”

The New Mexico ruling, however, has established a legal precedent that could reshape how social media companies are held accountable for the impact of their platforms on children—not just in the United States, but around the world. As Torrez put it, the road map is now in place.