In brief
In a landmark ruling, a New Mexico judge slammed Meta with a $567 million fine for failing to warn about child safety dangers. This is the biggest penalty yet and pushes a fund to treat and prevent harm. Meta plans to appeal while other lawsuits around the world keep adding pressure.
The last week, the internet giant Meta was handed a huge penalty of $567 million by a US judge in New Mexico. The ruling says the company didn’t do enough to stop the bad stuff that can appear on its sites – everything from creepy videos to creepy people who want to talk to kids. It’s the biggest fine in the history of child-safety cases against Meta.
The judge called Meta a ‘public nuisance,’ likening the site’s problems to air pollution and insisting a fund be created to heal children already hurt by the platform. A big chunk of the $567 million will go to therapy and training for teachers and health workers.
Meta had already been hit with a $375 million fine earlier, bringing its total penalty to $942 million. While the company says it will appeal, other legal fights are on the way – a big trial in California and new rules from the UK and EU that might shut down minors’ accounts entirely or put time limits on night-time usage.
For younger users, this means the platforms will get stricter limits. Meta has to stop younger people from getting nudity, ban push notifications overnight, and cap how many hours teens can spend on the sites each month.
If you’re using Instagram or Facebook and notice your feed or notifications are being cut back, it’s part of this new push to keep kids safer.
