BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM
New Mexico just became the first state to hold Meta financially liable for harms to children’s mental health. The total bill is now $942m.
The new ruling, handed down last week on Thursday, added $567m to the $375m penalty imposed in March, when a jury found the company knowingly damaged children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. The money goes into a dedicated fund: $420m for mental health treatment services for young people in New Mexico, the rest covering awareness, screening, and prevention over the next five years.
What the court ordered beyond the fine
Judge Bryan Biedscheid also imposed structural changes on how Meta operates in New Mexico. Facebook and Instagram must build informational screens explaining their safety features and tools. Meta must use AI to flag users it estimates to be under 13 and apply protective defaults until those users verify their age. It must partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where staff can flag suspected underage accounts, delete personal data collected on users under 13, and file compliance reports twice a year.
The order has boundaries. Federal law blocks Meta from using age-verification tools on children under 13, and the judge declined to impose verification requirements on Meta alone while other platforms face none. Rather than a hard gate, the ruling focuses on detection, default protections, and transparency requirements.
States are finding the path Congress hasn’t taken
$942m looks significant until you put it next to Meta’s annual profit of about $60bn. The dollar amount matters less than what the case establishes.
“America is not going to pass a law that bans social media,” said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University focusing on social media and cybersecurity. “But if companies like Meta know they’re causing harm to users by product design, the states are finally finding a way to rein this in.”
Meta says it disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal. It faces similar trials in Tennessee and California later this year. New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez said the case was about making clear that companies “cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence.” Thursday’s ruling is the first time a court formally agreed.
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