NEW MEXICO — A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $567 million into an abatement fund to address harms to young people from its platforms. Judge Bryan Biedscheid issued the ruling late Thursday, finding that the company's digital services constitute a public nuisance.

The financial penalty is part of a broader judgment that brings the total amount Meta is responsible for in the case to $942 million. This figure includes $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against the technology giant in March.

Judge Biedscheid compared Meta to a factory and its harmful effects to pollution in his written decision. He determined that the company violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act by misleading the public on the risks of its sites for underage users' mental health and risk of sexual exploitation. Jurors had previously determined in March that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

The court allocated specific portions of the $567 million abatement fund for distinct purposes. $420 million of the total will be used for treatment services for young people. The remainder of the $567 million will go toward awareness, prevention, screening services, and other costs over the next five years.

Beyond financial penalties, the judge ordered Meta to implement new safety measures for users in New Mexico. The court ordered Meta to impose monthly limits on teens' use of Facebook and Instagram. The judge also ordered Meta to turn off push notifications from 8 am to 3 pm on weekdays during the school year and 10 pm to 7 am on all other days for users under 18.

The ruling includes requirements for account privacy and interaction controls. The judge ordered that New Mexico teen accounts automatically be set on private. Additionally, the judge ordered Meta to stop New Mexico users from engaging in romantic or sexualized interactions with Meta’s artificial intelligence chatbots. These measures align with broader orders to implement restrictions on notifications, tighter controls on adult contact with minors, safeguards for AI chatbots, and enhanced review of child sexual abuse reports.

Meta must also upgrade its technical infrastructure to better identify and protect younger users. The court ordered Meta to continue improving age assurance tools in New Mexico using artificial intelligence. Meta must attempt to develop a dedicated under-13-years-of-age prediction model within two years.

The court addressed how Meta should handle users whose ages are uncertain. Meta must request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If Meta determines a user is under 13, or under 18 but cannot estimate a specific age, it must treat the user as under 13 or under 18 until the user verifies their age. The judge ordered Meta to delete personal information it has collected on users under 13.

Collaboration with educational institutions is also mandated by the order. Meta must partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13. The court also ordered Meta to build banner and informational screens to explain protection features, best practices, and tools to address inappropriate comments, and to display them regularly.

The court noted legal constraints on how aggressively Meta can verify ages for the youngest users. The court said federal children's privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. Specifically, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act prevents Meta from requesting children under 13 to submit personal data or be passively tracked online for age verification purposes. To ensure adherence to these rules, the court ordered Meta to report on its compliance with abatement measures twice a year.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta in 2023, initiating the legal proceedings that led to this judgment. "Today's decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online," Torrez said.

Meta responded to the ruling by emphasizing its ongoing safety efforts. "We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content," Andy Stone, a Meta spokesperson, said. The company's stock closed at $589.44 in after-hours trading Thursday, down less than half a percent. Meta's annual profit was about $60 billion in 2025.

This state-level judgment occurs alongside other legal challenges facing the company. Meta faces a trial later this month in federal court in Oakland, California, as part of a multi-district lawsuit filed in 2023 by 29 states.

Why It Matters

The ruling establishes a legal precedent by defining social media platforms as a public nuisance comparable to industrial pollution, shifting liability toward product design flaws. It mandates immediate operational changes in New Mexico, including usage limits, notification bans, and private default settings for minors. The $567 million abatement fund directly finances mental health treatment and prevention services rather than entering state coffers. Compliance requires Meta to develop new age-prediction models while navigating federal privacy constraints on verifying users under 13.