A US judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay a Meta child safety fine of $567 million for failing to warn the public about the dangers its platforms posed to children, marking the largest such penalty the company has faced over child safety, according to the BBC. Judge Bryan Biedscheid said the social media giant amounted to a public nuisance comparable to air pollution and ordered the money placed into a fund aimed at reducing future harms.
Thursday’s ruling adds to $375 million in fines Meta was previously ordered to pay in the same case, bringing the total amount of fines ordered in the case to $942 million, the BBC reported. A Meta spokesperson said the company disagreed with the ruling and would appeal, adding that Meta remained confident in its record of protecting teens online.
The Meta $567 million fine stems from a 2023 lawsuit brought by New Mexico state attorneys, who argued Meta should be held liable for the way its platforms endangered children and exposed them to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators, the BBC reported. Meta was found to have repeatedly violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, with its recommendation algorithms found to have steered young users toward harmful content and contacts.
In the second phase of the trial, Judge Biedscheid found that Meta’s harms had reached the level of a public nuisance, the BBC reported. The Meta New Mexico ruling also appears to be the first instance of a social media company being formally deemed a public nuisance.
Of the fund, $420 million will go toward treatment through clinical and behavioural health programmes, Judge Biedscheid said. The judge also ordered Meta to implement additional measures, including ensuring no account belonging to a user under 18 is recommended to an adult, banning underage users from sending or receiving nudity, eliminating “like” counts for users under 18, and capping usage for underage users at 90 cumulative hours per month across Instagram and Facebook.
Meta is currently facing thousands of similar lawsuits across the United States, the BBC reported. Concerns over social media child safety issues have drawn attention from regulators globally, with major technology firms including Google recently facing separate scrutiny after the EU’s €890 million fine over competition rule violations.
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