{"id":812727,"date":"2026-08-13T22:42:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T22:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812727\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T22:42:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T22:42:34","slug":"meta-fined-567m-for-harming-childrens-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/812727\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta fined $567m for harming children\u2019s mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A US state court has ordered <a data-ylk=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/meta\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Meta<\/a> to pay $567m (\u00a3425m) after finding the company responsible for harming children\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled the social media company behind Facebook and Instagram had created a public nuisance in New Mexico, siding with Ra\u00fal Torrez, the state\u2019s attorney general.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Torrez, a Democrat, accused Meta of designing its products to be addictive for young users and failing to protect children from sexual exploitation on its platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Biedscheid ordered the company to impose a range of safety measures, including monthly limits on teens\u2019 use of Facebook and Instagram, restrictions on notifications, tighter controls on adult contact with minors, safeguards for AI chatbots, and enhanced review of child sexual abuse reports, under a $567m decree that will remain in place for five years.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c8670c08-e25d-4609-93e2-0db9a74f9adc.jpeg\"><img alt=\"Children who lost their lives due to online harm are featured in the 'Lost Screen Memorial' exhibition in Los Angeles\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1568\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c8670c08-e25d-4609-93e2-0db9a74f9adc.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Children who lost their lives due to online harm are featured in the \u2018Lost Screen Memorial\u2019 exhibition in Los Angeles &#8211; Frederic J Brown\/AFP<\/p>\n<p>Meta said it would appeal the ruling and that it had been working to identify and remove harmful content from its platforms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts,\u201d Meta said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling came in the second phase of New Mexico\u2019s lawsuit. A jury in March had found Meta violated the state\u2019s consumer protection law by misrepresenting the safety of Facebook and Instagram for young users.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It ordered the company to pay $375m (\u00a3281m) in damages.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Biedscheid heard three weeks of testimony during the second phase, which did not involve a jury. It focused solely on whether Meta\u2019s platforms created a \u201cpublic nuisance\u201d under New Mexico law.<\/p>\n<p>The case is being closely watched as states, municipalities and school districts across the US pursue <a data-ylk=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2026\/03\/26\/the-historic-verdict-that-will-change-social-media-forever\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">similar claims seeking to force changes<\/a> at industry level.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/customer\/subscription\/store\/us\/?ICID=yahoo_article\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US state court has ordered Meta to pay $567m (\u00a3425m) after finding the company responsible for harming&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-812727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}