A Santa Fe district court judge handed Meta its second loss in the same New Mexico child safety case on Thursday, ordering the company to pay $567 million into an abatement fund for awareness, prevention, and treatment of harms linked to its platforms. Combined with the $375 million in civil penalties ordered in the first phase, Meta's total tab in the state now stands at $942 million.
The judge's 68-page ruling found that Meta's platforms are 'a cause of and have substantially contributed to a public nuisance in New Mexico,' citing 'significant numbers of people' experiencing harm from 'sexual exploitation, interference with education, and adverse mental health outcomes.' The court compared Meta to a polluting factory, writing that 'just as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta's platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms and, instead, migrate to the internet as a whole.'
The ruling also mandates operational changes inside New Mexico: Meta must remove Like counts for users under 18 unless a parent or guardian approves, pause push notifications to minors between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and cap underage usage at 90 hours per month — roughly three hours a day.
The judge acknowledged Meta is not the only platform contributing to the youth mental health crisis, but said its role is significant enough to require abatement.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company 'disagrees with the ruling and will appeal,' adding that it 'remains confident in its record of protecting teens online.' New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez called the decision 'a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child.'
Meta's shares were largely flat in premarket trading following the ruling, down around 0.33% to $587.94. The company disclosed $2.4 billion in total charges linked to various legal proceedings in the second quarter, and flagged in its latest earnings that 'youth-related trials scheduled for this year in the U.S. may ultimately result in a material loss.'
New Mexico is not alone: 33 states have filed a joint lawsuit consolidated in an Oakland federal court, and states including Tennessee have brought separate cases.
Here's the thing. A $942 million judgment is real money, but Meta's legal exposure is clearly priced in — a 0.33% dip says the market isn't panicking. What matters more is the behavioral engineering the court is now mandating: capped screen time, curfewed notifications, hidden Like counts. Those are product decisions being made by a judge in Santa Fe, not a product team in Menlo Park. Whether that produces safer teenagers or just a patchwork of state-by-state platform rules — a compliance nightmare that only the largest incumbents can afford to navigate — is the question regulators and lawmakers have yet to seriously answer.
