Judge requires time limits, hidden likes for New Mexico’s underage users
A New Mexico judge ordered Meta Platforms to pay $942 million and limit how long underage users in the state can spend on its apps, significantly increasing the cost of the child-safety verdict against the Facebook and Instagram parent.
State Judge Bryan Biedscheid said Thursday that Meta must create a new $567 million abatement fund in addition to paying $375 million in civil penalties that a jury previously ordered. The judge also required the company to limit the amount of time underage users in the state spend on Facebook and Instagram, hide by default the number of “likes” on photos for underage users, and disclose to users there the risks of its platforms.
Biedscheid said the fund, aimed at rectifying harms caused by the Facebook parent’s social-media apps, was “necessary, due to the wide-ranging impacts of the harm and the complex nature of the remedy.” The amount was slightly smaller than the $779.5 million that attorneys for the state sought.
Meta said it disagreed with the ruling and planned to appeal. “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts,” a spokesman said.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who accused the company of allowing young users to see sexually explicit content and to be easily lured by predators on the apps. A jury found in March that Meta willfully violated state consumer-protection laws.
“New Mexico led the way in the courtroom,” Torrez said in a statement. “Now other states, and other countries confronting the same crisis, have a roadmap they can follow.”
The New Mexico case was the first to go to trial among more than 40 states suing Meta over child-safety concerns, and the first to test questions about whether social-media companies should be held responsible for content on their platforms. Meta faces thousands of lawsuits from state attorneys general, school districts and individual plaintiffs who allege the company gave priority to growth over the safety of its underage users.
The next trial, brought by four state attorneys general, begins jury selection in Oakland, Calif., next week. Meta said in a court filing that the states in that case are asking for more than $1 trillion in damages.
A Los Angeles jury found earlier this year that Meta and YouTube were liable in the case of a young woman who said excessive use of the products led to mental health problems. Last week, the company said legal proceedings in the second quarter alone cost it $2.4 billion.