Meta ordered to pay $942 million over harm to children

A New Mexico court has ordered Meta to pay a total of $942 million after finding that Facebook and Instagram harmed young users and that the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms. Reportedly , the decision combines a $375 million civil-penalty verdict from March with a newly ordered $567 million abatement fund intended to address the damage. The court accepted the state’s argument that Meta had concealed what it knew about risks to children’s mental health and child sexual exploitation, while making misleading claims about the safety of its products. Meta said it disagreed with the ruling and planned to appeal. “We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.” But the ruling is more than just a fine. It also imposes product-level obligations in New Mexico. Meta must continue improving its age-assurance tools, including: Develop an under-13 prediction model within two years. Seek proof of age from users it estimates are under 13. Treat uncertain accounts as belonging to minors until their age is verified. Delete personal data collected from under-13 users. The company must also create a channel through which schools or a child-safety organization can report suspected underage accounts and submit compliance updates twice a year. This is a significant step. A company can remove individual accounts or posts after the fact, but the New Mexico case focuses on whether the surrounding product design, age checks, disclosure practices, and reporting systems adequately protect children in the first place. From Meta’s side, this is hardly a one-off incident. The Wall Street Journal reports that Meta is fighting thousands of lawsuits by individuals, school districts, and more than 40 state attorneys general which are pending in state and federal courts. How to keep your children safe In February, we published research on how safe kids are when using social media. As the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Meta plays a major role in this field. But unfortunately, it seems Meta isn’t even capable of blocking ads that contain AI generated Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Some tips for parents: Keep communication open. Keep conversations about online activity open and ongoing, not one-off warnings. Talk to your child about who they interact with online and what kinds of conversations are appropriate. Warn them about strangers in comments, group and gaming chats, and direct messages. Encourage them to leave spaces that make them uncomfortable, even if they didn’t do anything wrong. Set up accounts together. Use child or teen accounts where available and avoid defaulting to adult accounts. Keep friends and followers lists set to private. Avoid using real names, birthdays, or other identifying details unless they are strictly required. Avoid facial recognition features for children’s accounts. For teens, be aware of “spam” or secondary accounts they’ve set up that may have looser settings. Treat age limits seriously. While we don’t like many of the ways they are implemented , the age restrictions are there for good reasons. Do not help children bypass a platform’s minimum age requirement. Age restrictions can reduce exposure to adult spaces, unwanted contact, and features not designed for children. Discuss images and AI explicitly. Teach children never to send intimate images, even to someone they know, and to be wary of “nudify,” face-swap, or AI image-editing apps. Explain that AI-generated sexual images can be used to harass, blackmail, or humiliate someone, even when no original explicit photo exists. Have a simple escalation plan . If someone becomes sexual, coercive, threatening, or asks to move a conversation to another app: stop replying, preserve relevant evidence, block the account, and report it to the platform and appropriate child-protection or law-enforcement services. Teach a “pause before you click” habit. Children should know that ads, giveaways, direct messages, and links can be scams or gateways to harmful material. Encourage them to ask an adult before installing unfamiliar apps, entering personal information, or sharing photos. The most effective and probably hardest of them all is to find a balance between relying on device and platform controls and helicopter parenting . Device and platform controls can limit screen time, sensitive content, and unknown contacts. And they work best alongside trust, shared rules, and periodic check-ins rather than covert surveillance. Scammers don’t need to hack you. They just need you to click once. Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection catches suspicious activity before it becomes a problem. About the author Was a Microsoft MVP in consumer security for 12 years running. Can speak four languages. Smells of rich mahogany and leather-bound books.