A judge in the U.S. state of New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $567 million in damages for its role in the children’s mental health crisis. The ruling also requires the company to delete accounts belonging to children under the age of 13 and implement new safety measures for young users.
According to U.S. media reports, the decision was issued in a lawsuit alleging that Meta failed to adequately protect children and created a “public nuisance.”
The judge ruled that Meta must pay $567 million into a children’s mental health fund due to the company’s responsibility in contributing to the mental health crisis affecting minors.
Accounts of Children Under 13 to Be Deleted
As part of the court order, Meta is required to delete all accounts belonging to users under the age of 13, along with all personal data collected from those accounts.
In addition, the court ordered that the accounts of young users in New Mexico be set to private by default.
Notification Restrictions for Young Users
Under the ruling, Meta must disable push notifications for users under the age of 18 during school days between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., and every day between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
Meta said it disagrees with the court’s decision and announced that it will appeal the ruling.
Meta Listed as an “Extremist Organization” in Russia
Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) previously added Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to its list of terrorist and extremist organizations.