Key Points

• A New Mexico judge entered final judgment against Meta Platforms on August 6, 2026, ordering the company to pay $567 million into an abatement fund and bringing its total court-ordered liability in the case to $942 million. 

• The judgment followed a March 2026 jury verdict finding that Meta committed roughly 75,000 violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, the state law that prohibits deceptive business conduct. 

• Separate from state enforcement actions, individual families are filing personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against Meta and other platforms over addiction, teen suicide, sexual exploitation, and data collection. 

Why It Matters

State enforcement cases and private injury claims are different proceedings, but they rely on much of the same evidence. The New Mexico trial placed Meta’s internal records in front of a jury, and that jury concluded the company knew its platforms were harming children and did not say so. A second phase then produced court-ordered changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate. For families weighing a claim of their own, the significance is straightforward: a court has now examined the design of these platforms and found it caused harm. 

Families With Children Harmed on Social Media May Qualify

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has been ordered to pay a total of $942 million in a social media lawsuit filed by the state of New Mexico. The lawsuit alleged that the company designed its platforms in ways that harmed children and concealed what it knew about the sexual exploitation of minors on its services.  

Families across the country are filing their own lawsuits against Meta and other social media companies over injuries suffered by children and teenagers. These lawsuits allege that platform features such as endless scrolling, algorithmic content recommendations, and engagement-based notifications were built to maximize screen time, and that the companies did not warn parents about the resulting risks of compulsive use, mental health decline, and contact from adult predators. 

If you or a loved one suffered mental health injuries, sexual exploitation, or the loss of a child connected to social media use, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation.  

Contact the lawyers at Hissey Mulderig & Friend toll-free at 1-866-806-8117, or send us a message using the free claims submission form on the right side of this page to speak with an attorney and find out if you qualify. 

How the New Mexico Meta Lawsuit Reached Final Judgment 

New Mexico filed suit in 2023 after an undercover investigation by the state’s attorney general. The case proceeded in two phases. In the first, a jury decided liability and imposed the maximum civil penalty allowed under state law. In the second, the court determined what Meta must actually do to reduce ongoing harm. 

A judge in New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court entered final judgment on August 6, 2026, directing Meta to pay $567 million into an abatement fund, which is money set aside to address a public harm rather than to compensate an individual victim. That amount is in addition to $375 million in civil penalties a jury imposed against the company in March 2026 after finding roughly 75,000 violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, the state law prohibiting deceptive business conduct. 

The judge’s ruling described Meta’s engagement-driven features as harmful to teenagers and found the company failed to adequately communicate that risk to its users. The court compared the platforms to a factory producing pollution, reasoning that the harmful effects do not stay contained within the apps themselves.  

On that basis, the court concluded Meta’s platforms have substantially contributed to a public nuisance in New Mexico. Public nuisance is a legal claim used when a defendant’s conduct interferes with the health or safety of a community as a whole.  

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez described the outcome as a victory for parents who have worried about what social media is doing to their children. Meta has stated that it will appeal, and that it remains confident in its record of protecting teenagers online. 

Meta Must Change How Facebook and Instagram Operate

The New Mexico court’s decision did not stop at monetary damages. The judgment imposes court-supervised operational changes on Meta’s platforms in New Mexico that will remain in effect for five years, subject to twice-yearly compliance reporting. 

Under the order, Meta must limit push notifications to minors between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and cap their platform usage at roughly 90 hours per month. Like counts must be removed for users under 18 unless a parent or guardian approves showing them.  

Meta must continue improving its age assurance technology, which estimates a user’s age from behavioral signals rather than documents, and must attempt to build a dedicated model for identifying users under 13 within two years. Users the company estimates to be under 13 must be asked for proof of age and treated as minors until they verify.  

Meta must also delete personal information already collected on users under 13 and partner with schools or a child safety organization on a portal where staff can flag suspected underage accounts. 

States Across the U.S. Have Filed Lawsuits Against Meta

New Mexico was the first state to take Meta to trial, but it is not the only government body that has taken legal action against the company.  

A federal multidistrict litigation in Oakland, California consolidates claims brought by dozens of state attorneys general, with the first states set for trial in late August 2026.  

Eight states, including Tennessee, filed separate actions in their own state courts. In March 2026, a Los Angeles jury also returned a verdict against social media companies over addictive design. 

Alongside the government cases, thousands of families have filed individual personal injury and wrongful death claims involving Facebook, Instagram, or other social media platforms. These include a lawsuit filed in July 2026 by the families of four teenagers who died by suicide after using Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube.  

Who May Be Eligible to File a Social Media Lawsuit

Individuals and families may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation if they meet the following case criteria: 

1. A minor or young adult developed a diagnosed mental health condition, including depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, or self-harm behavior, connected to heavy use of platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, or YouTube. 

2. A family lost a child or young adult to suicide or to a drug overdose involving substances obtained through contact made on a social media platform. These are pursued as wrongful death claims by surviving parents or the estate. 

3. A minor was sexually exploited, groomed, or targeted in a sextortion scheme by an adult who made contact through a social media platform, gaming service, or messaging app. Related claims are also being filed over harms on gaming platforms, and the firm accepts Roblox exploitation cases as well. 

4. A user’s personal information or health-related data was collected, tracked, or shared without authorization, including data gathered from minors in violation of federal children’s privacy law. 

Case criteria differ by state, and deadlines to file are governed by statutes of limitations.  

Filing a Social Media Lawsuit

If you or a loved one developed depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, or another serious mental health condition connected to social media use, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation.  

Parents who lost a child to suicide, or to a drug overdose involving a substance obtained through contact made on a social media platform, may also qualify to take legal action.  

Families of minors who were groomed, sexually exploited, or targeted in sextortion schemes by adults who made contact online may qualify as well, as may users whose personal information or health data was collected, tracked, or shared without authorization. 

Our law firm, Hissey Mulderig & Friend, is currently accepting claims involving the social media lawsuits filed against platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, or YouTube, as well as gaming platforms such as Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft. 

Find out whether you qualify to file a lawsuit or start the process of filing a claim today by contacting the lawyers at Hissey Mulderig & Friend toll-free at 1-866-806-8117, or send us a message using the free contact form at the top of this page.