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Meta has been ordered to pay $567 million and make sweeping changes to Facebook and Instagram after a New Mexico judge found that the company’s platforms created a public nuisance that harmed children, ConsumerNotice.org reported.
Thursday’s ruling goes beyond concerns about excessive social media use. New Mexico’s case also focused on allegations that Meta failed to adequately protect children from sexual exploitation and predatory behavior on its platforms.
The decision follows a separate $375 million jury verdict against Meta in March, bringing the financial penalties resulting from the New Mexico litigation to approximately $942 million.
But the significance of the case extends well beyond New Mexico.
Meta and other major technology companies are facing thousands of lawsuits throughout the United States over allegations that their platforms were designed in ways that endangered young people. Nearly every state has pursued claims against Meta, TikTok or other social media companies, while more than 1,000 school districts and thousands of individuals have also filed lawsuits.
New Mexico Case Began With Child Sexual Exploitation Investigation
The New Mexico Department of Justice began investigating Meta in 2023 as part of an effort to protect children from sexual abuse, online solicitation and other alleged harms occurring through the company’s platforms.
According to the state, evidence presented during the litigation included internal Meta documents and testimony from former employees, law enforcement officials, educators and child-safety experts.
New Mexico officials said that evidence showed that features of Meta’s platforms enabled predators to engage in child sexual exploitation.
The state also alleged that Meta knew about dangers involving young users while publicly portraying Facebook and Instagram as safer than they actually were.
In March 2026, a New Mexico jury found Meta liable for violating the state’s consumer protection law and imposed $375 million in civil penalties. [Read more about this verdict.]
The latest ruling came during the second phase of the case, when District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid considered whether Meta’s conduct amounted to a public nuisance. He concluded that it did.
Judge Orders New Protections for Children
The court ordered Meta to pay $567 million into a fund intended to address teen mental-health harms and imposed a series of child-safety requirements that are expected to remain in effect for five years.
Among other measures, Meta must impose limits on the amount of time minors can spend on Facebook and Instagram, restrict certain notifications sent to young users and strengthen controls governing contact between adults and children.
The order also addresses emerging concerns involving artificial intelligence.
Meta must prevent minors in New Mexico from engaging in romantic or sexualized interactions with the company’s AI chatbots. Adults must also be prevented from using those chatbots to simulate or discuss sexualized interactions with children.
The court additionally ordered enhanced review of reports involving child sexual abuse.
Meta has said it plans to appeal the ruling and maintains that it has taken substantial steps to protect young people using its platforms.
Previous Meta Verdict Found Company Misled Consumers
The $567 million order builds on the March jury verdict that found Meta violated New Mexico consumer-protection laws.
That earlier trial examined allegations that Meta misrepresented the safety of its platforms and failed to adequately address the risks children faced online, including sexual exploitation.
Sexual abuse lawsuits do not always focus solely on the individual who committed the abuse. Depending on the circumstances, institutions and companies may also face allegations that they failed to protect children from foreseeable harm, ignored warning signs or allowed dangerous conditions to continue.
Learn more about institutional sexual abuse lawsuits and survivors’ legal rights.
Why the New Mexico Ruling Could Have Nationwide Impacts
The New Mexico judgment applies directly to Meta’s operations within that state, but the legal questions behind the case are being litigated throughout the country.
More than 40 states and over 1,300 school districts have pursued public-nuisance claims against social media companies, according to Reuters. Other lawsuits have been filed by children, parents and young adults alleging personal injuries connected to social media use, with those cases continuing to move forward.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected an attempt by Meta and TikTok to immediately appeal rulings allowing more than 3,000 federal lawsuits against major social media companies to proceed.
The court did not decide whether the plaintiffs will ultimately win those cases. Instead, it ruled that the companies’ appeal concerning Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was premature.
Section 230 generally protects online platforms from liability based on material posted by their users. A central question emerging in this litigation, however, is whether some claims concern the companies’ own product designs and safety practices.
Meta Faces Another Major Child-Safety Trial
The national litigation is already entering another important phase.
Today, jury selection began in federal court in Oakland, California, for a case involving claims against Meta brought by multiple states.
Twenty-nine states are part of the broader federal action, while the first trial involves California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.
The states allege, among other things, that Meta designed its platforms to keep children engaged, misrepresented their safety and unlawfully collected data involving children under age 13. Meta denies the allegations.
Thousands of additional cases are also proceeding in federal and state courts.
In March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google’s YouTube negligent in the first individual social-media injury case to reach trial and awarded a young woman $6 million. Meta was ordered to pay $4.2 million and Google $1.8 million. Both companies have said they will appeal.
Impacts On Survivors and Families
The New Mexico case represents more than another large financial judgment against a technology company.
For survivors and families, one of its most consequential aspects may be the court’s willingness to examine whether a platform’s own design choices and safety systems contributed to conditions that put children at risk.
When abuse begins through an online platform, the person who commits the abuse may bear direct responsibility. But litigation around Meta, Roblox and other online platforms examines what responsibility does a company have when it knows children are being targeted or exploited through systems it created and controls?
The answers will vary by case, state law and the specific facts involved. The New Mexico ruling does not automatically establish liability for Meta or another technology company in an individual survivor’s case.
What it does show is that courts are increasingly being asked to scrutinize whether powerful online platforms did enough to protect children and whether companies can be held accountable when alleged failures in their own systems contribute to serious harm.
As similar cases proceed around the country, those questions are likely to become an increasingly important part of the legal landscape surrounding online child exploitation and survivor rights.
