New Mexico Court Orders Meta to Pay Additional $567 Million in Child Safety Case

What is the total amount New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay, including the first phase and this ruling?

A New Mexico court on Thursday, August 7, 2026, ordered Meta to pay $567 million in the second phase of the state's child safety case, according to The Verge (E1). This new figure comes on top of $375 million in civil penalties Meta was ordered to pay in the first phase of the case in March, according to TechCrunch (E7). Combined, the two orders bring Meta's total charges in the New Mexico case to $942 million, as reported by both The Verge (E5) and TechCrunch (E7).

What did the court find regarding Meta's responsibility for the teen mental health crisis, and on what basis?

The ruling, published Thursday, came from the Santa Fe district court, which found that Meta's platforms are a "significant contributing cause" of a teen mental health crisis affecting public health and safety throughout New Mexico, according to The Verge (E2). The court's order elaborated on this finding, stating that "significant numbers of people in New Mexico experience harm from Meta's products due to risks of sexual exploitation, interference with education, and adverse mental health outcomes," as quoted by TechCrunch (E9).

How will the $567 million penalty be used, and in which specific areas?

According to The Verge, the $567 million will be placed into an abatement fund that will go toward funding awareness and prevention measures, screening services, and treatment for people harmed by the company's platforms (E4). This structure ties the fund directly to the harms the court identified — sexual exploitation risk, educational interference, and adverse mental health outcomes — as described in the court's findings (E9).

What specific operational restrictions has the court imposed on Meta's platforms?

Beyond the financial penalty, TechCrunch reports that the court ordered Meta to change how its platforms function in the state. Meta must remove Like counts, showing such metrics to users under 18 only with approval from a parent or guardian (E8). The court also ordered that push notifications to underage users in New Mexico be paused between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and that their usage be limited to 90 hours a month — roughly three hours per day (E8).

What did New Mexico's Attorney General say about the ruling, and what are the allegations against Meta?

New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said in a statement that "this case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world's largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence," adding that "today's decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online," according to The Verge (E3). In a separate statement reported by TechCrunch, Torrez said that "for years, Meta knew its platforms were harming New Mexico's kids, from feeding a youth mental health crisis to connecting predators with children, and it chose engagement and profit over their safety" (E10).

What is Meta's position on the ruling, and what are its next steps?

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in an emailed statement that the company disagrees with the ruling and plans to contest it. "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," Stone said, adding, "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts," as reported by both The Verge (E6) and TechCrunch (E11).

What this means

The $942 million total combines a $375 million civil penalty from the first phase with a $567 million abatement fund from this second ruling (E5, E7), and the fund's stated purpose — awareness, prevention, screening, and treatment (E4) — directly mirrors the harms the Santa Fe court cited: sexual exploitation risk, educational interference, and adverse mental health outcomes (E9). At the same time, the court paired the financial penalty with concrete operational mandates — hidden Like counts, a nighttime notification blackout, and a 90-hour monthly usage cap for minors (E8) — suggesting the ruling was designed to address both compensation and ongoing platform behavior. Meta's stated intent to appeal (E6, E11) means the $942 million figure and the operational restrictions remain contested rather than final.