Key Takeaways
- A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $567 million after a seven-week trial found its platforms contributed to child social media addiction and harmed kids' mental health.
- Judge Bryan Biedscheid directed $420 million of the payout to fund child treatment, awareness, and prevention services over five years, and ordered Meta to build an AI-powered "under-13" age prediction model and partner with schools or child protection groups to flag underage users and delete their data.
- Meta, accused of knowingly exposing young users to mental health risks and child sexual exploitation, pushed back in a statement defending its teen safety record and said it plans to appeal the ruling.
Meta has received a legal ruling to cough up $567 million over the harmful mental health effects its platforms allegedly have on children.
According to CBS News, the major tech company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, was ordered by a New Mexico court to pay the amount following its loss in a seven-week trial over child social media addiction in March. In the Thursday (August 6) ruling, Judge Bryan Biedscheid ordered $420 million from the amount to go towards child treatment services, including awareness and prevention, for the next five years.
Jurors initially asked that Meta pay $375 million in civil penalties, claiming that the company was aware of its detrimental impact on children's mental health, and exposure of young users to child sexual exploitation. Since the legal decision, Meta's apps could significantly change for minors under 13, with potential age verification improvement and protections against sexual content in privacy settings.
A spokesperson for Meta shared the company's pushback against the ruling along with plans to appeal.
"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," the statement read. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts."
With the New Mexico court calling for Meta to refine their age verification tools through artificial intelligence, the company has been ordered create a "under-13-years-of-age prediction model" in the next two years. Meta has also been requested to partner with a school or child protections organization to signal users under 13, to which their personal information will be deleted.
