Tessa Everly
A New Mexico judge has potentially set a new standard for implementing more effective social media regulations aimed at protecting teenagers. The ruling also mandates that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, pay a substantial 7 million for its role in causing harm to young users on its platforms.
As reported by KOB News, New Mexico Chief District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid emphasized that the state is currently facing a youth mental health crisis, attributing a significant portion of this issue to the influence of Meta’s platforms.
This financial penalty is part of a two-phase legal battle initiated by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez. During the first phase, which concluded with a jury verdict in March, Meta was found liable for its failure to protect young users from child predators using its apps. The jury awarded $375 million in civil damages to the affected parties.
The second phase of this litigation pertains to Meta’s ongoing inability to safeguard teenagers, elevating the total financial repercussions to an alarming 2 million.
The funds obtained from this ruling will be allocated towards support services, awareness campaigns, and preventive measures aimed at addressing the mental health concerns associated with social media use among teens.
Judge Biedscheid proposed a comprehensive, multi-step strategy that Meta must adopt to mitigate the adverse effects of social media on adolescents in the future.
The required measures include:
- Meta is obligated to enhance youth safety protocols on Facebook and Instagram specifically for users in New Mexico.
- All user profiles for individuals under 18 must be set to private by default. adult users should not be allowed to connect with minors without consent (Meta has already started implementing this practice).
- Push notifications will be disabled for users under 18 from 10 PM to 7 AM daily, and from 8 AM to 3 PM during the school year.
- Like counts will be hidden by default for all users under the age of 18.
- Meta must enforce a mandatory usage cap of 90 hours per month for users under 18 across both Facebook and Instagram.
This newly established framework could pave the way for a wider regulatory approach to limit the detrimental effects of social media on young users. These usage restrictions may prove to be more impactful than broad social media bans on teens, which preliminary research from Australia indicates have had minimal effectiveness.
The success of these measures hinges on Meta’s ability to accurately detect user ages, ensuring that teens do not circumvent these restrictions.
In this regard, the judge mandated that Meta must enhance its efforts to verify the ages of users suspected of being underage, requiring the deletion of accounts belonging to users under 13 who fail to provide verification within 30 days.
This challenge remains significant. Reports from Australia suggest that many teenagers have successfully navigated around age verification systems, allowing them to use social media platforms without accounts, which still exposes them to potentially harmful content.
Any effective strategy would need to limit access to harmful material for non-logged-in users and implement stricter age verification processes. This could involve a universally accepted, government-approved system applicable across all social media platforms.
If such systems can be effectively integrated, the guidelines proposed here could help curb harmful usage patterns among teenagers.
In response to the ruling, Meta spokesman Andy Stone stated on X that the company intends to appeal the decision, expressing confidence in its commitment to safeguarding teenagers online.
Clara Hastings
Troy Sanders
