New Mexico Court Orders Meta to Pay Nearly $1 Billion in Landmark Child Safety Case
A New Mexico court has ordered Meta to pay a combined $942 million after two separate rulings. The court found that the social media giant violated state consumer protection laws and created a public nuisance by exposing children to sexual predators and harmful content on its platforms.
The case marks the first time a state has successfully prevailed at trial against a major tech company over child harm claims. It’s also the largest financial judgment of its kind to date.
Two Rulings, One Case
In March 2026, a jury found Meta liable for enabling child sexual exploitation on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, ordering the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed suit in 2023 following an undercover investigation that found Meta’s platforms were “prime locations” for predators to solicit minors.
On August 6, 2026, Judge Bryan Biedscheid issued a second ruling, ordering Meta to pay an additional $567 million into an abatement fund to address the broader public health harms the platforms have caused to New Mexico’s youth.
“The jury’s verdict is a historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price for Meta’s choice to put profits over kids’ safety,” AG Torrez said following the March verdict. He called the August ruling a decision that “forces real changes to how Meta operates in New Mexico.”
What the Court Found
In the August ruling, Judge Biedscheid compared Meta’s platforms to factories, drawing an analogy between psychological and sexual harm to children and factory pollution. He found that Meta had created a public nuisance, concluding that “significant numbers of people in New Mexico experience harm from Meta’s products due to risks of sexual exploitation, interference with education, and adverse mental health outcomes.”
The $567 million abatement fund is earmarked to support youth internet safety training for educators and healthcare providers, as well as community-based mental health centers.
Platform Changes Ordered
Beyond the financial penalties, the court ordered Meta to implement sweeping safety changes for users under 18 in New Mexico, including:
- Default private accounts on Instagram
- Restricted friend connections on Facebook, limited to other minors
- Paused push notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and during school hours
- A monthly usage cap of 90 hours (roughly three hours per day) across both platforms
- Hidden “like” counts
- Daily safety information banners
The court declined, however, to mandate changes to Meta’s recommendation algorithms, which plaintiffs had also sought.
Meta Plans to Appeal
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company “disagrees with the ruling and will appeal.” The company has maintained that it “works hard to keep people safe” on its platforms, though internal documents presented during trial allegedly showed executives were aware of harms to children while downplaying risks publicly.
The $375 million jury award, while a record, fell short of the more than $2 billion New Mexico had originally sought. The amount reflects the state’s consumer protection statute, which caps penalties at $5,000 per violation.
Broader Litigation Context
The New Mexico case is part of a growing wave of lawsuits against social media companies nationwide. As of August 2026, more than 3,100 social media addiction cases were pending in federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of California, with additional cases filed in state courts across the country.
Plaintiffs in those cases, including individuals, families and school districts, allege that Meta, TikTok, Snap and Google deliberately designed addictive features that targeted children’s developing brains while concealing the mental health risks.
Earlier this year, a jury found Meta and Google liable in a bellwether trial, awarding a plaintiff $6 million for mental health harms she developed from prolonged social media use beginning in childhood. In June 2026, social media companies paid a combined $27 million to settle the first school district case to reach a resolution.
The New Mexico ruling is expected to put additional pressure on Meta as it faces ongoing litigation on multiple fronts. No global settlement in the federal MDL has been announced.