A New Mexico state court judge on Thursday ordered Meta to pay $567 million and make sweeping changes to how minors interact with its platforms, marking a significant escalation in state-level litigation over social media’s impact on youth mental health.
Santa Fe-based Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled that the money will fund a program to address social media harms, with $420 million earmarked specifically for treating New Mexico youth who have been harmed by use of the platforms. The remaining funds will go toward public awareness campaigns and future harm prevention efforts.
The ruling builds on a March jury verdict in the same case, which found Meta liable for $375 million after determining the company deceived users about safety on Instagram and Facebook and facilitated the sexual exploitation of minors. In his opinion, Biedscheid wrote that Meta’s platforms are a “significant contributing factor to the current mental health crisis among New Mexico’s youth,” and formally labeled the company a public nuisance.
Operational changes ordered
Beyond the financial penalty, the judge imposed specific operational restrictions on Meta’s platforms in New Mexico. The company is barred from sending push notifications to youth users between 10 pm and 7 am, and youth accounts are now capped at 90 hours of platform engagement per month. Facebook and Instagram must also add public awareness screens explaining child protection features and other safety information to users.
Meta said it disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal. A company spokesperson said Meta works to keep users safe and has been transparent about the difficulty of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content, adding that the company remains confident in its record of protecting teens online.
Part of a broader legal wave
The New Mexico case is considered a bellwether because it is the first of dozens of similar lawsuits filed against Meta by state attorneys general nationwide. Legal pressure on the company has been mounting on multiple fronts. In March, a California jury found Meta and YouTube responsible for a young girl’s social media addiction and its effects on her mental health, awarding her $6 million. Separately, Meta faces at least 1,200 lawsuits from school districts, and in May the company settled with a Kentucky district that sought funding for mental health and academic interventions for students affected by its platforms.
The New Mexico ruling could shape outcomes in the remaining state cases as courts continue to weigh how much responsibility social media companies bear for harms to young users.