Meta Ordered to Pay $567 Million in Youth Mental Health Lawsuit

A judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, to pay $567 million because its social media platforms put children in danger. Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled that Meta's apps 'create a public nuisance' and said they are a major reason why young people in New Mexico are struggling with their mental health. The money will go into a special fund to help kids get mental health treatment and to teach families how to stay safe online.

This $567 million payment is actually the second big fine Meta has faced in this same court case. Back in March, a jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million after finding that the company knew its safety systems had problems. Those problems allowed its apps to connect child users with predators — adults who try to harm children. Together, the two payments from this case add up to nearly $1 billion.

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, the state's top lawyer, said the case was always about keeping kids safe. '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,' he said. His team built the case by having investigators pretend to be children online. Doing this helped them prove that Meta was not doing enough to remove sex offenders and other criminals from its platforms.

Of the $567 million, $420 million will go directly to mental health treatment and education programs. The remaining money will pay for awareness campaigns and efforts to prevent harm before it happens. The ruling also requires Meta to make changes to its apps, such as stronger privacy settings for children by default and stricter checks to verify how old users really are.

Meta said it disagrees with the ruling and will appeal, which means the company will ask a higher court to review the decision. '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,' Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said. The company says it has a strong record of protecting teens and believes the case misrepresents the facts.

Even with all its legal losses this year, Meta has not been hit very hard financially. The $942 million the company has paid out in lawsuits in 2025 is a small amount compared to its annual profits — last year Meta earned nearly $60 billion. The company's stock price also did not drop much after the ruling. Still, the case is a big deal because it could change how social media companies are regulated across the whole country.

The judge's ruling goes beyond just the money. Meta must also add informational screens and pop-up messages telling users about its safety features, including tips on how to handle and report uncomfortable or inappropriate interactions. New Mexico law also bans Meta from collecting data on children under 13, so the company must build a new artificial intelligence tool to detect accounts that might belong to kids that young. The ruling even sets monthly time limits for how long teens can use Meta's apps.

Attorney General Torrez called the New Mexico ruling a 'blueprint' that other states and countries could follow when building their own lawsuits against social media companies. More than 40 states and 1,300 school districts have already filed similar lawsuits against social media companies. A separate trial in Tennessee is currently underway, claiming that Meta's apps are designed on purpose to be addictive to children.

Social media companies have often tried to defend themselves using a law called Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which was passed in 1996. This law protects websites from being sued over content that users post. However, that defense has not been working well lately — in this case and others, judges focused on how the platforms were designed, not just what people posted. Meta will face yet another trial in California later this month, where four states are seeking $1.4 trillion in penalties over the addictive design of its platforms.