Facebook parent company: Meta to pay $567 million in fund for children

The Facebook company Meta is to pay more than half a billion dollars in aid to children who have been harmed by using social media, according to a court decision in the US state of New Mexico. In addition, additional restrictions are to be introduced in the state for users under the age of 18: among other things, they will be able to spend a maximum of 90 hours per week on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta wants to appeal. The decision goes back to a lawsuit by the Attorney General of New Mexico, Raúl Torrez, who accused Meta of not adequately protecting children from sexual exploitation. In March, a jury concluded that Meta had violated the state's consumer protection laws. At the time, a fine of $375 million was already ordered.

Now, an additional $567 million (around €492 billion) is being added to the fund. A large part of this - $420 million - is to be spent on therapy measures.

Fewer notifications

In addition, users under the age of 18 in New Mexico are generally no longer to receive push notifications between 10 pm and 7 am. On school days, notifications are also to be switched off for them between 8 am and 3 pm. Children in the state are also no longer to see "like" numbers. The group includes, among other things, the chat service WhatsApp and the X alternative Threads, in addition to Facebook and Instagram.

Meta is in the sights of dozens of lawsuits in the USA, accusing the company of not adequately protecting young users. In March, Meta and Google's video platform YouTube suffered a defeat in a potentially landmark case about the addictive potential of online services. A jury in Los Angeles concluded that the platforms were acting negligently and did not adequately inform users about risks. The companies also want to overturn this judgment.