Meta Fined $567 Million for Social Media Child Harm
A New Mexico court has mandated that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, disburse $567 million to mitigate the adverse effects experienced by youth due to its platforms. This ruling comes in the second phase of a significant trial that the social media behemoth lost in March. In a ruling issued late Thursday, Judge Bryan Biedcheid determined that the majority of the funds, amounting to $420 million, will be allocated for treatment services aimed at young individuals. The remainder will be allocated to awareness and prevention initiatives, screening services, and various expenses over the forthcoming five years.
In the initial phase, jurors imposed $375 million in civil penalties on Meta, concluding that the company knowingly inflicted harm on children’s mental health and concealed its awareness of child sexual exploitation occurring on its platforms. In the second phase, prosecutors requested that the judge mandate significant alterations at Meta, focusing on curbing addictive features, enhancing age verification, and safeguarding against child sexual exploitation by implementing default privacy settings and increasing oversight.
The court ruled that federal children’s privacy laws inhibit Meta from implementing age-verification tools for individuals under the age of 13. The Children’s Online Privacy Act, or COPPA, prohibits Meta from requiring children to provide personal data or allowing passive tracking online, even in the context of age verification. The court also noted that mandating Meta to verify children’s ages exclusively for itself, while exempting other social media companies, would be “inequitable and unduly injurious” to the company.
