A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to pay $567 million to address harms to young people caused by its platforms.
In a ruling issued late yesterday, Judge Bryan Biedscheid said $420 million of the penalty will fund treatment services for young people. The remainder will support awareness and prevention programs, screening services and other related costs over the next five years.
The penalty comes on top of the $375 million in civil damages jurors ordered Meta to pay in March after finding that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
In the second phase of the case, prosecutors also called for fundamental changes at Meta, including limits on addictive features, stronger age-verification measures and greater protections against child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and increased oversight.
The ruling adds to the growing legal pressure on Meta, which is facing thousands of lawsuits from families alleging that children have been harmed by its social media platforms.
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