Why Meta Was Ordered to Pay $942 Million Over Children's Safety
Updated August 28, 2026
A major court ruling against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is changing the conversation about child safety on social media.
Earlier this month, a New Mexico court entered a final judgment against Meta that brought the company's total financial exposure in the state to $942 million. The ruling also ordered significant changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate for children and teens in New Mexico.
Then, on August 26, another major development occurred. Meta reached a separate settlement of up to $18 billion with U.S. states and territories over allegations involving Facebook, Instagram, children, teens and social media safety. The agreement includes nationwide changes designed to provide additional protections for teenage users. Meta denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
For parents, the headlines raise some important questions. Why was Meta taken to court? What did the New Mexico ruling actually find? What changes are coming to Facebook and Instagram? And what does all of this mean for families?
Here is what parents need to know.
What Happened in the Meta Child Safety Case?
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta in 2023, alleging that Facebook and Instagram exposed children to harmful design features, mental health risks and sexual exploitation while the company failed to adequately disclose those risks.
The case eventually proceeded through a two-phase trial.
In the first phase, a jury found that Meta committed 75,000 violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act and imposed $375 million in civil penalties.
In the second phase, Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled that Meta's platforms constituted a public nuisance in New Mexico and ordered the company to pay another $567 million to address the state's youth mental health crisis.
Together, the two awards brought Meta's financial exposure in New Mexico to $942 million.
The money, however, is only part of what makes this child safety case significant. The court also ordered changes to how Meta's platforms operate for young people in New Mexico.
Why Did the Court Rule Against Meta?
At the center of the case was a question that goes beyond whether children should or should not use social media:
What responsibility does a technology company have for the way it designs a product that children use?
The New Mexico case examined Meta's product design and practices rather than simply holding the company responsible for content posted by other users.
That distinction was particularly important because Meta argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protected it from liability. Section 230 generally provides online platforms with significant legal protection from being treated as the publisher or speaker of content created by third parties.
The New Mexico court rejected Meta's Section 230 defense as it applied to the product design claims at issue in the case.
Parents interested in understanding Section 230 and its role in social media regulation can read this overview from the National Association of Attorneys General: Understanding Section 230 and Online Platforms
What Child Safety Changes Did the Court Order?
The New Mexico judgment goes beyond financial penalties. The court ordered a number of safeguards for children and teens using Meta platforms.
These include:
A 90-hour-per-month usage limit for users under 18
Stronger age assurance measures within the limits of federal law
Stronger protections against sextortion and child sexual exploitation
Restrictions intended to prevent minors from exchanging nude images that violate Meta's policies
Restrictions on overnight push notifications for minors
Privacy protections for minors, including hiding public "like" counts by default
Restrictions involving AI chatbot interactions with young users
Prominent disclosures about risks associated with Meta's platforms
Meta was also ordered to fund a statewide education and public awareness campaign, provide specialized resources for New Mexico law enforcement investigating internet crimes against children, and submit public compliance reports to the court twice a year.
Many of the court-supervised reforms are intended to remain in effect for five years.
The Associated Press has reported that implementing some of these protections, particularly age assurance, could be complicated. Federal children's privacy law limits how companies can collect information from children under 13, while identifying exactly which users should receive New Mexico-specific protections presents additional technical challenges.
Meta has said it plans to appeal the New Mexico ruling.
Parents can read more about the ruling directly from the New Mexico Department of Justice:
Meta's $18 Billion Teen Safety Settlement
Less than three weeks after the New Mexico judgment, Meta reached a sweeping settlement involving separate litigation brought by states over Facebook and Instagram's effects on young users.
Under the agreement announced August 26, Meta will pay up to $18 billion to resolve claims that its platforms were designed to entice and retain young users and that the company misled the public about risks to children.
The litigation also included allegations involving the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which governs certain collection of personal information from children under 13.
There is an important distinction for parents reading about these two developments.
The nationwide Meta settlement and the $942 million New Mexico judgment are not the same case.
New Mexico took its case to trial and obtained a judgment against Meta.
The broader litigation ended in a settlement, and Meta did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to it.
What Will Change on Instagram and Facebook for Teens?
The nationwide agreement could result in changes families actually notice when teenagers use Facebook and Instagram.
According to the settlement terms reported by Reuters, Meta agreed to protections including:
A default two-hour daily usage limit across Facebook and Instagram for teens
Overnight restrictions from midnight to 6 a.m.
Push notifications disabled during weekday school hours from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Additional age assurance measures
Likes and reactions hidden from teens by default
A non-personalized feed for young users
Not all of these changes will happen immediately.
The settlement provides for a phased rollout, including additional compliance and age assurance requirements over the coming year.
For parents, there is an important idea behind these changes:
Online child safety is increasingly becoming a matter of default design, not simply parental settings.
Instead of requiring parents to discover and activate every safety feature themselves, some protections could be built directly into the experience teenagers receive.
Does This Mean Instagram and Facebook Are Unsafe for Kids?
Not necessarily, and that is not the most useful takeaway for parents.
Social media is not a single experience. Young people may use online platforms to communicate with friends and family, explore interests, express themselves and participate in communities.
At the same time, these cases highlight growing scrutiny of how social media platforms are designed and how those designs may affect children and teenagers.
Features such as endless feeds, autoplay, recommendations, notifications and visible engagement metrics can influence how people interact with an app.
Children and adolescents are particularly important to consider when evaluating those design choices.
Interestingly, the New Mexico order did not prohibit some of the features frequently criticized in debates about addictive social media design, including autoplay, infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations.
The judge concluded that restricting those features only on Meta's platforms while competitors continued to use them could unfairly disadvantage Meta.
The debate over exactly which social media design features pose risks to children, and what technology companies should be required to do about them, is far from over.
What Can Parents Do to Keep Kids Safer Online?
Court rulings and settlements may change the technology children use, but they do not replace conversations at home.
Parents can use age-appropriate parental controls, establish device-free periods, especially around bedtime, and regularly ask children what they are seeing and experiencing online.
It can also help to move beyond simply telling children they have a screen-time limit.
Teach them a little about why apps can be difficult to put down.
Children do not need to understand the technical details of recommendation algorithms to learn that the posts and videos appearing on their screens are not necessarily random.
Platforms make choices about what content to recommend, when to send notifications and what might encourage someone to return.
That understanding is part of digital literacy for kids.
A conversation can be as simple as:
"Have you ever noticed that when you watch one kind of video, the app starts showing you more of the same thing?"
Parents can then explain that technology is designed by people, and children do not have to accept every recommendation, notification or prompt an app gives them.
What About Social Media Safety for Younger Children?
Many of these court cases involve teenagers, but parents of younger children should still pay attention.
Under COPPA, online services generally face special requirements when collecting personal information from children under 13.
That does not mean children under 13 never encounter social media or social media-style experiences.
Games, video platforms, messaging tools and other apps increasingly include features that resemble traditional social media, such as profiles, recommendations, chats, feeds, reactions and algorithmically selected content.
When evaluating an app or online service for a younger child, parents can ask:
Who can contact my child?
Is the account private by default?
Does the app encourage endless use?
Can my child make purchases?
What information is being collected?
Can strangers find my child's profile?
What parental controls are available?
Is this product actually designed for a child at this age?
Parents can learn more about children's online privacy directly from the Federal Trade Commission: FTC: Children's Privacy and COPPA
Why the Meta Child Safety Ruling Matters for Parents
The New Mexico ruling was significant on its own. The nationwide Meta settlement makes the broader shift harder to ignore.
Within a matter of weeks, Meta faced a New Mexico judgment totaling $942 million and then entered a nationwide settlement worth up to $18 billion that includes changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate for teenage users.
The outcomes are legally different, but together they illustrate a larger change in the conversation about kids and social media safety.
For years, families have carried much of the responsibility for managing children's relationships with technology.
Parents set screen-time limits. Parents turn off devices at bedtime. Parents search through privacy settings. Parents decide when a child is ready for a phone. Parents try to understand apps that can change dramatically within months.
Those things still matter.
But courts, regulators and state governments are increasingly asking another question:
Should technology companies bear more responsibility for designing online environments that children can safely use in the first place?
That could mean stronger default privacy settings, age-appropriate experiences, fewer notifications, better age assurance and greater recognition that children are not simply smaller versions of adult users.
The Bigger Picture for Families
Parents should not have to become software engineers, privacy lawyers or social media experts to help keep their children safe online.
Families will always play an essential role in teaching healthy technology habits. But safer digital childhoods will likely require more than good parenting.
They will require thoughtful product design, meaningful safeguards, sensible regulation, effective enforcement and better digital literacy for children and adults alike.
The Meta cases do not settle every debate about children and social media.
They do signal an important change in the conversation.
Instead of asking only: "How should parents manage children's technology use?"
We are increasingly asking: "How should technology be designed for children in the first place?"
For families raising children in an increasingly digital world, that is a conversation worth following.
Resources for Parents
New Mexico Meta Child Safety Ruling
The New Mexico Department of Justice provides information about the $942 million judgment and child safety requirements ordered by the court.Meta Teen Safety Settlement
Reuters provides details about the nationwide settlement and changes expected for teenage Facebook and Instagram users.New Mexico Child Safety Requirements
The Associated Press provides additional reporting about the New Mexico court order, including the 90-hour monthly usage limit and age assurance requirements.Understanding Section 230
The National Association of Attorneys General explains Section 230 and its significance for online platforms. Read the Section 230 OverviewChildren's Online Privacy and COPPA
The Federal Trade Commission provides information for families about federal protections concerning children's personal information online. FTC Children's Privacy and COPPA Resources
Sources and Further Reading
New Mexico Department of Justice.Court Orders Meta to Pay $942 Million and Overhaul Protections for Children on Facebook and Instagram in Landmark New Mexico Ruling. August 7, 2026. Primary source for the New Mexico judgment, penalties and court-ordered protections.
Associated Press.A New Mexico judge ordered new child safeguards for Meta. Advocates hope other courts follow. August 8, 2026. Independent reporting on the judgment and implementation of the court-ordered protections.
Reuters.What Meta agreed to in US teen safety settlement. August 26, 2026. Reporting on the nationwide settlement and new protections for teenage users.
National Association of Attorneys General.The Future of Section 230: What Does It Mean for Consumers? Background on Section 230 and online platform liability.
National Association of Attorneys GeneralFederal Trade Commission.Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). Official federal information about children's online privacy protections.
Federal Trade Commission COPPA Resource
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