New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $567 Million and Rebuild Teen Safety Tools

A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $567 million and overhaul how Facebook and Instagram treat teenage users, ruling that the company's platforms amount to a "public nuisance" that has contributed to a youth mental health crisis in the state. The decision, handed down by Judge Bryan Biedscheid, comes on top of a $375 million jury verdict from March 2026, pushing Meta's total exposure in the case to $942 million.

The ruling followed a three-week, non-jury trial examining whether Meta's recommendation systems and design choices caused public harm broadly enough to qualify as a nuisance under state law. It is the first time a court has applied that legal theory to a social media company.

Where the $567 million goes

The judgment directs about $420 million into treatment and behavioral health services for young people affected by the platforms. The remaining roughly $147 million is earmarked for awareness campaigns, screening and assessment programs, referral and coordination services, and compliance oversight, paid out over five years. New Mexico's attorney general called the ruling "a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child."

What changes for teen accounts

Beyond the payout, the order requires Meta to rework how Facebook and Instagram function for users under 18 in New Mexico. Reported provisions include:

• Blocking direct messages from unfamiliar adults to minors, and barring the exchange of nude images with minor accounts entirely
• Removing visible "like" counts on minor accounts
• Pausing push notifications overnight from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and again from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days
• Capping combined Instagram and Facebook use at 90 hours per month for minor accounts
• Blocking Meta's systems from recommending minor accounts to adult users
• A "one-strike" policy that removes adults found engaging in child sexual exploitation

The order also pushes Meta toward better age detection: developing an AI-based model to flag likely under-13 users within two years, treating unverified young accounts as minors by default until age is confirmed, deleting data already collected on confirmed under-13 users, and setting up a portal for schools to flag suspected underage accounts. Meta must also add recurring in-app banners explaining teen safety tools and file compliance reports with the state twice a year.

Where this applies — and where it doesn't, yet

The ruling is a New Mexico state court judgment, so the specific requirements are tied to that lawsuit and apply to teen accounts there. Meta has said it disagrees with the decision and will appeal, which could delay when any of these changes take effect. Similar child-safety cases against Meta are pending in California and other states, and how this ruling holds up on appeal is likely to shape those. There's no indication yet that any of the account changes described in the order will roll out to users outside New Mexico.

Part of a wider pattern

The case adds to a run of rulings and platform changes this year aimed at how tech companies handle young users, including a Brazilian lawsuit over App Store age checks and Google's rollout of supervised balances for kids. Regulators and courts on multiple continents are increasingly treating age verification and default privacy settings as enforceable obligations rather than optional design choices.

What happens next

Meta's appeal means the $567 million payment and the mandated account changes are not final. If the ruling survives appellate review, New Mexico's compliance reporting schedule would give the first public checkpoint on whether Meta has actually implemented the required changes within roughly six months of that outcome. Parents and teens outside New Mexico won't see any of this directly unless Meta chooses to apply the changes more broadly or loses similar cases elsewhere.