A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to pay $567 million into a fund aimed at remedying the adverse mental health impacts caused by its platforms. The decision, announced Thursday, is part of the second phase of a historic trial that the social media giant lost in March.
At that time, a jury found that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms, imposing the maximum penalty: a $375 million fine. The new decision adds to that fine, bringing the total Meta must pay to $942 million.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid determined that the majority of the money, $420 million, will be used for youth treatment services in New Mexico. The remainder will go toward awareness and prevention campaigns, screening services, and other costs over the next five years.
The March trial was the first to hold Meta accountable for acts committed on its platform, following a 2023 Guardian investigation that revealed how Facebook and Instagram became marketplaces for child sexual trafficking. Several former Meta moderators told The Guardian that there were instances where they flagged harmful content related to child grooming, but the cases were not escalated.
In the second phase of the trial, which began in May, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes on Meta to curb addictive features, improve age verification, and prevent child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.
The judge also ordered other changes, including that Facebook and Instagram create banners and informational screens to clearly explain their protective features, best practices, and tools for handling inappropriate comments. These changes, along with an educational campaign in New Mexico, will be subject to state review.
The court stated that federal child privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age verification tools to children under 13. The court also noted that ordering age verification for children only for Meta, and not for other social media companies, would be ‘unfair and unduly prejudicial’ to the company.
Instead, the court ordered Meta to continue improving its age assurance tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people’s ages based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume. Meta must also attempt to develop an ‘under-13 age prediction model’ within the next two years.
Additionally, Meta must request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If it determines a user is under 13, or under 18 without being able to estimate a specific age, Meta must treat the user as under 13 or under 18 until the user verifies their age.
The company must also partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13. And it must delete personal information it collected from users under 13. The court also ordered Meta to report its progress twice a year on how it is complying with the mitigation measures.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez hailed the ruling. ‘This case has always been about protecting children, defending families, and ensuring that one of the world’s largest tech companies cannot profit from practices that endanger youth without consequences,’ Torrez said in a statement.
‘Today is a victory for all parents who worry about what social media is doing to their children and for all children who deserve to grow up safer online,’ he added.
A Meta spokesperson told The Guardian on Thursday that the company ‘disagrees with the decision’ and plans to appeal. ‘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 track record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against allegations that misrepresent the facts,’ the spokesperson said.
The total amount Meta must pay is a small fraction of its annual profit, which was about $60 billion in 2025. Still, it represents another setback for Meta, which faces a wave of lawsuits from families of children harmed by social media.
The company is involved in a series of lawsuits in other U.S. states over alleged harm to youth. In a trial in Tennessee, which began last month, the state accused the company of ignoring internal warnings about compulsive use of Instagram by teens, which has been linked to eating disorders and depression, among other adverse effects. Meta is also preparing for a trial later this month in a federal court in Oakland, California.
What came out of New Mexico is the first of many dominoes that could fall for Meta, said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University specializing in social media and cybersecurity. ‘The U.S. is not going to pass a law banning social media,’ Edelson said. ‘But if companies like Meta know they are causing harm to users through product design, states are finally finding a way to curb it.’