Meta to pay USD 567 million in New Mexico child harm case

Santafe,UPDATED: Aug 7, 2026 05:28 IST

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to pay USD 567 million to address harm caused to young people by its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial that the social media company lost in March.

In a ruling issued late Thursday, Judge Bryan Biedcheid said USD 420 million of the amount will go towards treatment services for young people. The remaining money will be used for awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years.

In the first phase of the case, jurors had ordered Meta to pay USD 375 million in civil penalties. They found that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

During the second phase, prosecutors had asked the judge to direct Meta to make major changes, including curbing addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight. However, the court said federal children’s privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. It said the Children’s Online Privacy Act, or COPPA, means it cannot order Meta to ask children to submit personal data or be passively tracked online, even for age verification. The court also said ordering Meta alone to verify children’s ages, and not other social media companies, would be “inequitable and unduly injurious” to the company.

The ruling follows the March verdict against Meta and sets aside USD 567 million for treatment, prevention, screening and related costs, while stopping short of ordering the wider platform changes sought by prosecutors. The Associated Press said it had reached out to New Mexico’s Department of Justice and Meta for comment on the decision.

With PTI Inputs

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