Meta faces nearly $1bn bill as court orders sweeping changes for teenagers

Night-time alerts, visible “like” counts and unrestricted scrolling time would all be curtailed for young users under an extraordinary court order. It applies only in New Mexico, but lands as Europe and Britain pursue their own restrictions.

The ruling reaches far beyond Meta’s $942m liability

Meta’s potential liability in New Mexico has now reached $942 million, but the judgment does more than impose a huge financial penalty. It orders the company to change how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram in the state for the next five years. Users under 18 would be limited to 90 cumulative hours each month across the two platforms, equivalent to roughly three hours a day. Push notifications would be blocked between 10pm and 7am, as well as between 8am and 3pm on school days. “Like” counts would also be hidden by default for younger users.

The order includes tighter restrictions on contact between children and unconnected adults, the exchange of nude images and romantic or sexualised conversations involving Meta’s artificial intelligence chatbots.

For now the changes only apply in New Mexico, not to accounts in Spain, Britain or elsewhere. Although the UK, Spain and other EU countries are currently evaluating and putting forward their own restrictions on the use of social media for children of different ages. 

How the court arrived at the nearly $1bn figure

The judge ordered Meta to contribute another $567 million, equivalent to around £421 million, towards addressing harm experienced by young people. Of that sum, $420 million would support treatment services in New Mexico. The remainder would fund prevention, awareness, screening and associated programmes over five years.

It follows a separate March jury verdict which imposed $375 million in civil penalties after finding that Meta violated New Mexico’s consumer protection law by misrepresenting the safety of Facebook and Instagram for younger users. Together, the two decisions leave the company facing a total liability of $942 million.

Judge Biedscheid found that Meta’s platforms constituted a “public nuisance” under state law. He compared the company to a factory whose harmful pollution escapes into the wider community, describing children’s psychological harm and sexual exploitation as effects that must be addressed.

Meta, of course, disputes the findings. The company said it works to remove harmful content, remains confident in its record of protecting teenagers and will appeal the ruling.

Adult contact and AI chatbots also face restrictions

The ruling goes considerably further than just screen time and ‘like’ buttons. Meta must tighten controls intended to prevent unconnected adults from finding or messaging children. It must also prevent underage users from sending or receiving nude images and introduce a one-strike permanent ban for adults who engage in child sexual exploitation. 

Another rule is that children in New Mexico must be prevented from having romantic or sexualised interactions with Meta’s artificial intelligence chatbots. Adults would also be barred from using the chatbots to simulate sexualised interactions involving children.

Age assurance forms a major part of the order. Meta must improve systems that estimate a user’s age from account activity and attempt to develop a model specifically capable of identifying children under 13 within two years. Schools or a child safety organisation must also be given a portal through which staff can report suspected under-13 accounts.

There were other requests by New Mexico that weren’t granted by the judge. Proposed orders to remove infinite scrolling, autoplay and alter recommendation algorithms were rejected over concerns involving free speech, federal protections for online platforms and technical feasibility.

Why families in Spain and Britain should still watch

None of these court-ordered restrictions currently applies to children using Facebook or Instagram outside of New Mexico. But the timing is nevertheless significant for European families. On July 10, the European Commission preliminarily found that the design of Instagram and Facebook may breach the Digital Services Act. Its investigation concerns many of the same features, including push notifications, autoplay, infinite scrolling and highly personalised recommendation systems. The finding is preliminary, not a final decision, and Meta can respond before the Commission reaches its conclusion, but the recent investigations and rulings shows that officials and parents-alike have had enough of the negative effects these platforms are having on children. 

Britain has separately announced plans to prevent under-16s from accessing major social media platforms, with the first restrictions expected in spring 2027.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez called the August 6 judgment “a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child”.

For Meta, this could just be the beginning of a long road of orders and appeals most likely to continue in the coming years, with the company due to face another trial in California, involving claims brought by 29 US states, as the legal challenge to how social media platforms are designed for children spreads far beyond New Mexico.