New Mexico’s attorney general hopes a state court ruling ordering Facebook parent company Meta to pay $567 million and take steps to protect people under 18 is the impetus for addressing how Big Tech can harm children.Thursday’s decision ended the second phase of a landmark trial. Jurors earlier this year determined Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.The first phase of the case saw a $375 million judgment against Meta, meaning the social media giant is responsible for $942 million.Along with the additional penalties, Judge Bryan Biedscheid also ordered Meta on Thursday to make fundamental changes to its platforms to reduce addictive features, improve age verification and prevent child sexual exploitation.“They have not shown any willingness to either accept responsibility for their conduct or concede they have a role to play in fixing and addressing the harms that they created,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said.Here’s what the ruling means for New Mexico, Meta and the future of social media.
Judge orders Meta to make key changes to its platformsFor Torrez, the most important aspects of the ruling were requiring Meta to improve how it reviews and responds to reports of child sexual abuse, limiting how chatbots can interact with children and capping the number of hours people under 17 can spend on Meta’s platforms.The judge ordered Facebook and Instagram to build banner and informational screens to clearly explain protection features, best practices and tools to address inappropriate comments and display them regularly. Those changes and an educational campaign in New Mexico would be subject to review by the state.Meta must also work to improve its age verification tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people’s age based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume.“It’s only the beginning of a conversation nationally that we need to have around all of these issues to make this a safer space for all our kids and families,” Torrez said.
