Ruling directs $420 million to youth treatment services
A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms. Judge Bryan Biedcheid issued the ruling late Thursday in Santa Fe, saying the bulk of the money — $420 million — will be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years.
The ruling is the second phase of a trial in which jurors in March ordered $375 million in civil penalties against Meta, determining 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, prosecutors had asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.