{"id":9914,"date":"2026-08-07T14:51:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=9914"},"modified":"2026-08-07T14:51:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:51:01","slug":"meta-ordered-to-pay-567-million-in-new-mexico-for-teen-mental-health-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=9914","title":{"rendered":"Meta ordered to pay $567 million in New Mexico for teen mental health fund"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A New Mexico state court ordered Meta on Thursday to pay $567 million into a \u200bteen mental health fund and change how its platforms function for young users after finding the company is to blame for harming children\u2019s wellbeing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Bryan Biedscheid in Santa Fe ruled the \u200ccompany had created a public nuisance in New Mexico, siding with Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez, a Democrat. Torrez had accused the social media company of designing products to addict young users and failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on its platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling comes five months after a New Mexico jury in an earlier phase of the case ordered Meta to pay $375 million after finding it violated consumer protection law by misrepresenting the safety of Facebook and Instagram for young users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case was being closely watched amid a growing wave of litigation accusing \u200bsocial media companies of harming young users. While many lawsuits have been brought by children and families over alleged injuries to individuals, states, municipalities and school districts have also pursued lawsuits seeking broad changes to \u200bthe industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 40 states and over 1,300 school districts have filed public nuisance lawsuits against social media companies, seeking damages as well as court orders requiring changes \u2060to products and practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biedscheid on Thursday ordered Meta to implement youth-safety measures, including monthly limits on teens\u2019 use of Facebook and Instagram, restrictions on notifications, tighter controls on adult contact with minors, safeguards for AI chatbots, and enhanced \u200breview of child sexual abuse reports, under a decree that will be in place for five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta said it will appeal the ruling and that it has been working to identify and remove harmful content from its platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe remain confident \u200bin our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts,\u201d Meta said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Mexico\u2019s Torrez said in a statement that Meta chose profit over child safety, and that the ruling was the first to force a social media giant to make changes protecting children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not just a judgment against one company. It is a blueprint,\u201d Torrez said. \u201cNow other states, and other countries confronting the same crisis, have a roadmap they can follow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters last year reported on company documents \u200bthat showed Meta\u2019s AI chatbots could \u201cengage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,\u201d part of a series of investigations into Meta profiting from ads peddling fraud and banned products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Thursday\u2019s ruling, Biedscheid ordered Meta to prevent children \u200bin New Mexico from \u201cengaging in romantic or sexualized interactions with Meta\u2019s artificial intelligence chatbots\u201d and to prevent adults in New Mexico from using chatbots to simulate or discuss a sexualized interaction with a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PUBLIC NUISANCE<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Biedscheid heard three weeks of testimony during the second trial \u200cover the \u2060lawsuit, which did not involve a jury. It focused solely on whether Meta\u2019s platforms created a \u201cpublic nuisance\u201d under New Mexico law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public nuisance claims traditionally have targeted conduct that endangers public health or safety, such as blocking roads or polluting waterways, but state governments have also invoked them in litigation involving tobacco, opioids, climate change, vaping and most recently artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c(J)ust as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta\u2019s platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms and, instead, migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world and create a common, societal burden on and harm to the \u200baffected children and their families and schools, as well as \u200bhospitals and law enforcement,\u201d Biedscheid wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta had said \u2060at trial it could not have created a public nuisance because it had not interfered with a \u201cpublic right,\u201d such as access to air or water. Meta also argued that its social media platforms are not the only ones used by the state\u2019s young residents, and the case ignores the impact of other apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also criticized the changes New Mexico sought, \u200bsaying in filings many were \u201ctechnologically impractical or completely impossible,\u201d and could force the company to exit the state altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta had also argued that New Mexico\u2019s claims were \u200bbarred by Section 230 of the \u2060Communications Decency Act, a federal law that generally shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content. Biedscheid rejected that defense, finding the state was challenging Meta\u2019s platform features rather than trying to hold the company liable as publisher of third-party content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Biedscheid declined to impose some of the remedies sought by New Mexico, finding that changes to Meta\u2019s algorithms and features such as infinite scroll and autoplay could infringe the company\u2019s rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, harm its competitive \u2060position, and run \u200bafoul of Section 230.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling comes as Meta prepares to face a trial next week in federal court in Oakland, California, over claims \u200bby 29 states that it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children and misled users about their safety, a case that could expose the company to massive damages.
The company is also defending a lawsuit brought by Tennessee in a trial that began in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta has told investors that legal \u200band regulatory blowback in the U.S. and European Union over youth social media issues \u201ccould significantly impact our business and financial results.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A New Mexico state court ordered Meta on Thursday to pay $567 million into a \u200bteen mental health fund and change how its platforms function..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-tech"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-07-195029-1.png",902,572,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-07-195029-1-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-07-195029-1-300x190.png",300,190,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-07-195029-1-768x487.png",768,487,true],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-07-195029-1.png",902,572,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-07-195029-1.png",902,572,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-07-195029-1.png",902,572,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Science<\/a> Tech<\/a>","tag_info":"Tech","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9916,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9914\/revisions\/9916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}