A New Mexico judge has issued a landmark ruling that could reshape how social media platforms protect teenage users, ordering Meta to pay $567 million for facilitating harm to minors on its apps. The decision, reported by KOB News, also establishes a detailed set of requirements aimed at curbing negative impacts on adolescent mental health.

Chief District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid stated that New Mexico is experiencing a youth mental health crisis and that Meta’s platforms are “a significant contributing cause to the crisis.” The penalty represents the second phase of litigation pursued by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez. In the first phase, a jury verdict in March found Meta liable for failing to shield young users from child predators, approving $375 million in civil damages.

With the latest ruling, Meta’s combined financial exposure in this case now totals $942 million. The funds are designated to support awareness, prevention, and assistance programs for affected teens.

Beyond the monetary penalty, Judge Biedscheid outlined a multi-step framework that Meta must implement to limit the harmful effects of its platforms on minors. The mandated measures include:

  • Expanding youth safety measures on Facebook and Instagram within New Mexico.
  • Making all profiles of users under 18 private by default, and blocking adult users from connecting with teens by default (a practice Meta already employs).
  • Eliminating push notifications for users under 18 from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily, and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year.
  • Hiding like counts by default for users under 18.
  • Implementing a mandatory usage cap of no more than 90 hours per month across Facebook and Instagram for users under 18.

This framework could serve as a foundation for broader regulatory approaches to mitigate social media’s adverse effects on teens. The restrictions on usage are likely to be more effective than outright bans, which initial research from Australia suggests are having little impact.

However, the success of these measures hinges on effective age detection. The judge ruled that Meta must enhance its efforts to seek proof of age for suspected underage users and delete accounts for users under 13 who fail to verify within 30 days.

Age verification remains a critical challenge. In Australia, early reports on the effectiveness of its teen social media ban indicate that most teens have circumvented age detection systems or continued using social apps without accounts, still accessing potentially harmful content. An effective approach would need to restrict access for non-logged-in users and implement more stringent age checks, possibly through a government-approved, universal system applied across all platforms.

If such systems can be enacted, the guidelines proposed in New Mexico could prove helpful in limiting harmful usage habits among teens. In response, Meta spokesman Andy Stone said on X that the company will appeal the court’s ruling and remains confident in its record of protecting teens online.