Meta Ordered to Pay $567m in Child Safety Case

A US judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay a further $567m (£421m) over what he said was the company’s failure to warn the public about dangers its social media platforms posed to children, in what the court described as the largest child-safety penalty yet imposed on the firm.

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said Meta must establish a fund to reduce future harms. The order on Thursday adds to a prior ruling of $375m, bringing the total fine in the case to $942m.

In his decision, Biedscheid said Meta’s business model amounted to a “public nuisance” comparable with pollution affecting the general public. He drew an analogy between the company and a factory, with advertising and content as its product and with the resulting “psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children” described as the pollution that must be addressed.

Judge Orders New Fund

The court’s latest ruling is the second phase of a trial brought by New Mexico in 2023. State attorneys argued that Meta should be held responsible for how its platforms endangered children and exposed them to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators.

In the first phase, Meta was found to have repeatedly violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. The court said Meta’s recommendation algorithms “essentially steered” young users towards harmful content and contacts.

In the second phase, Biedscheid concluded the harms reached the level of a public nuisance. He compared the effects of the platforms to the way “noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air”, adding that the harm spreads beyond the platforms and affects the wider internet and, potentially, real-world conditions.

The judge said the impacts create a “common, societal burden” on affected children and families, as well as schools, hospitals and law enforcement.

Meta said it plans to appeal. A company spokesman said the firm disagreed with the ruling and that it worked to keep users safe, while arguing that it had been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing harmful content and bad actors. Meta said it remained confident about its record of protecting teens online.

Measures To Curb Harms

The judge ordered Meta to fund efforts to mitigate harms already caused and to support prevention and awareness.

The court said the vast majority of the money, $420m, would be used for treatment of harms through “appropriate clinical or other behavioral health programmes and professionals”. Another portion of the fund is intended to support training aimed at awareness and prevention, including for teachers and health professionals.

The ruling also required Meta to implement operational changes, including:

• Ensuring that no account for users under 18 is recommended to adults and that adults cannot message underage users

• Banning underage users from sending or receiving nudity

• Applying a “1-strike policy” to adult users who engage in child sexual exploitation

• Removing “like” counts for users under 18

• Blocking push notifications for such users daily between 10:00pm and 7:00am, and during typical school hours between 8:00am and 3:00pm, except on weekends

• Imposing a mandatory usage limit of 90 cumulative hours per month across Instagram and Facebook, equivalent to about three hours a day

Appeal And Wider Legal Challenges

Meta’s case adds to a growing number of US lawsuits. The New Mexico action was described as the first time a state had successfully sued Meta over child safety issues. The company is also facing other litigation, including a landmark decision earlier this year in Los Angeles in which a court found Meta could be held liable for building addictive platforms.

Bruce Daisley, a former European vice president of Twitter (now X), said the New Mexico fine, while large, was “a drop in the ocean” for Meta. In its latest financial results, Meta reported revenue of $61bn from April to June, up 28% year on year.

The New Mexico ruling comes as the UK and EU press platforms to take similar steps to protect children online, with recent focus on repair mechanisms that prevent children from being easily viewed or contacted. At the same time, some countries are considering broader bans on children using social media, including plans in the UK to block under-16s and introduce opt-out curfews for older teens at night.

A major additional trial involving Meta is due to begin next week in California. Nearly three dozen state attorneys general are suing the company, alleging violations of child privacy laws.

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7 August 2026

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