Social media apps are having a profound impact on the minds of children and youth today. Meta, which operates major apps like Facebook and Instagram, is currently facing legal cases and government investigations around the world.
From US courts to European agencies and child safety issues in India, Meta is accused of harming the safety and well-being of children for its own gain and profit. Recently, a New Mexico court imposed a massive fine of 567 million (approx 4,700 crore rupees) on Meta.
This decision is a major lesson regarding the way tech companies function, their algorithms, AI chatbots and their failure to prevent child sexual exploitation. Features are deliberately introduced inside apps that keep children glued to their phones for hours.
This is leading to cases of stress, sleeplessness, depression, and suicide among children. The New Mexico court found Meta guilty of causing a ‘public nuisance,’ meaning that these flaws in social media are no longer just an individual’s problem, but have become a threat to society as a whole.
Along with this, in a country like India, where crores of children use the internet, the issue of online child sexual abuse and safety has assumed a very serious form. From all these cases and court decisions, it has become clear that governments and courts around the world are no longer in the mood to quietly tolerate the high-handedness of tech companies.
New Mexico Court Order and 567 Million Penalty
Taking a strict stance against Meta, a court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, ordered the company to deposit a massive sum of 567 million (over 4,700 crore rupees) into a Teen Mental Health Fund.
Along with this, Judge Bryan Biedscheid directed Meta to make changes in the fundamental operations of its platforms to protect underage users. In its findings, the court clearly stated that Meta is fully responsible for harming the health and safety of children and teenagers through its platforms.
This entire legal action was initiated by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who alleged that the company designed its products in a way that would make youth addicted to them. Furthermore, the company completely failed to implement basic mechanisms to protect children on its platforms from sexual harassment, online grooming, and exploitation.
This 567 million judgment by the court came after the second phase of hearings in the case. Just five months before this, in the first phase of the same lawsuit, a New Mexico jury had ordered Meta to pay 375 million.
The jury concluded in its findings that Meta directly and severely violated consumer protection laws by making false and misleading claims about the safety of Facebook and Instagram. As part of its judgment, the court also issued a strict decree that will remain in effect for five years.
Under this, Meta will have to set a fixed monthly time limit for the usage of Facebook and Instagram by teenagers in New Mexico, impose strict restrictions on repeated notifications, block avenues for unknown adults to directly contact minors, enforce strict safety rules on AI chatbots and conduct extremely thorough reviews of reports related to child sexual abuse material.
What is Public Nuisance Law and What Arguments Did Meta Give in Its Defence?
The main focus of the three-week bench trial held in this New Mexico court was to determine whether Meta’s platforms created a public nuisance under state law. In the US judicial system, public nuisance law has historically been used against activities that harm the health, safety, or public property of the general public, such as blocking major roadways or spreading toxic waste in rivers and air.
However, in recent years, US states have begun widely using this law to hold tobacco companies, opioid drug manufacturers, climate change cases, e-cigarette companies and now AI and social media giants accountable.
In his written judgment, Judge Bryan Biedscheid drew a very compelling comparison, writing that just as toxic smoke emitted from a factory pollutes the surrounding environment and the public right to clean air, similarly, the harmful effects of Meta’s platforms are not limited to phone screens or the internet.
These harmful effects spill out of the digital world into the real world, placing a massive social burden and crisis on affected children, their families, schools, hospitals and the entire law enforcement system.
On the other hand, Meta argued in its defence during the trial that it did not create any public nuisance because it did not directly obstruct any public property like air or water.
Meta’s lawyers also argued that the youth of New Mexico do not exclusively use their apps, but also run digital apps from other companies, so it is wrong to blame Meta alone for this situation.
Opposing the restrictions and protective measures sought by the court, the company stated in court filings that many of these changes are technically impossible or extremely difficult, and these rules might force the company to wrap up its services from the entire state altogether.
Additionally, Meta claimed legal immunity under Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, which generally protects internet platforms from liability for content posted by their users.
However, Judge Biedscheid completely rejected this Section 230defencee. The court clarified that the state here is not holding Meta guilty for content posted by third parties, but is instead challenging the platform features designed by the company itself, its addictive mechanisms and its own internal operational structure.
Sexually Explicit Conversations by AI Chatbots and the Serious Threat to Child Safety
Internal reports presented to the court during the trial revealed that Meta’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots were becoming a new and grave threat to child safety. Reports proved that the company’s AI chatbots could engage in romantic, sensual and sexually explicit conversations with young children.
Amid investigations into earnings generated through fraud and the sale of restricted goods via ads on the platform, the misuse of this AI feature further heightened the court’s concern.
In his order, Judge Biedscheid directed Meta to build solid technical guardrails to prevent any child in New Mexico from engaging in any form of romantic, sensual, or sexual conversation with Meta’s AI chatbots.
The court also ordered measures to ensure that no adult user could use Meta’s chatbots to hold explicit conversations with a child. This issue is not limited to AI chatbots alone, but is directly linked to child sexual abuse material spreading on the platform and pedophiles targeting children.
The State Attorney General presented solid evidence alleging that Facebook and Instagram had such severe security flaws that adults with malicious intent were getting open opportunities to reach and exploit minor children.
In its order, the court directed Meta to strengthen and expedite its review process for complaints and reports related to child sexual abuse on its platforms.
However, in its official statement released after the decision, Meta stated that it would file an appeal against this judgment in a higher court.
Meta claims that it is constantly working to make its platforms safer. The company states that it is confident in its record regarding teen safety and will continue to defend its facts in court, but the facts revealed in the court’s judgment expose these claims.
European Commission’s Strict Probe and Growing Pressure from Global Government Agencies
Apart from these ongoing lawsuits in the US, regulatory scrutiny against Meta in the European Union (EU) is also continuously tightening. The European Commission has officially announced that it is opening an investigation against Meta’s two major social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, under its new and strict Digital Services Act (DSA).
This probe primarily focuses on serious risks related to child safety and the company’s disregard for its statutory obligations. This landmark EU law makes it mandatory for tech companies to take immediate and concrete steps to remove illegal, explicit and harmful content from their platforms.
Simultaneously, they must ensure the highest level of privacy and protection for minors. If a company is found violating these rules, a financial penalty of up to 6 per cent of its global total turnover can be imposed.
EU regulators believe that several features of Facebook and Instagram are designed in a way that promotes app addiction and undesirable behaviour in children, causing a deep negative impact on their mental development and mental health.
Additionally, the European Commission is investigating whether Meta possesses a reliable mechanism to verify the correct age of users, and whether its algorithms are pushing young children toward dangerous or inappropriate content without their consent.
The impact of this continuously growing global pressure is clearly visible on Meta’s commercial future as well. The company has formally warned its shareholders and investors that these legal cases and regulatory restrictions in the US and the EU regarding youth social media usage and child safety could severely affect its business.
Impact on Mental Health and Legal Action over Teenage Deaths
This issue of social media companies putting the mental health of youth at stake for their financial gain is no longer limited to government agencies or state lawsuits, but its most horrific aspect is visible in the stories of ordinary families who have lost their children.
Recently, in the Delaware Superior Court in the US, the families of four minor children filed a major lawsuit. This case was filed jointly against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
The petition alleges that due to the severe mental risks arising from years of regular and excessive use of these platforms, those four children took the horrific step of suicide.
This lawsuit was filed on behalf of the families of children from four different states- Levi Castro (13 years), Reeve Kelleher (14 years), Nathaniel Chambers (17 years) and Dawson Holden (18 years)- who lost their lives within a short 14-month period between July 2024 and September 2025.
Matthew Bergman, founder attorney of the ‘Social Media Victims LaCentreer’ representing the victim families, explicitly stated that despite all the hollow claims and false assurances by high-ranking company executives, these apps are taking children’s lives.
According to the complaint filed in court, these four teenagers faced horrific mental conditions such as severe social media addiction, extreme sleep deprivation, deep depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
Attorneys General from more than 33 US states have jointly filed a common lawsuit against Meta in a California federal court. This group of 33 states alleged that Meta knew that the ‘like’ system and continuous scroll design on its platforms capture and control the minds of teenagers.
In 2021, internal secret documents leaked by former company employee Frances Haugen revealed to Parliament and the entire world that Instagram was instilling body image insecurity in teenage girls, and despite having full knowledge of this, the company concealed it for profit.
Child Sexual Abuse, Legal Framework and Digital Safety Status in India
This crisis of child safety and sexual abuse on social media platforms is not limited to developed countries like the U.S. or Europe, but presents a major challenge for a country with a massive digital market like India.
In India today, crores of young children and teenagers actively use Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp daily. Due to a lack of digital literacy and adequate supervision, Indian children easily fall victim to online cyberbullying, online grooming and child sexual abuse material.
However, a strict legal framework exists in India to deal with such crimes, primarily including the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
Under Indian law, viewing, searching, downloading, storing on a phone or computer, or transmitting Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) to anyone else is a non-bailable, serious offence. The mere storage or consumption of such material is a punishable offence under Section 15 of the POCSO Act and Section 67B of the IT Act.
Furthermore, under the Government of India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, tech companies (intermediaries) like Meta are under a strict legal obligation to immediately remove and block access to any child sexual abuse material within 24 hours of receiving a complaint or government direction.
The investigating agency, CBI, has also launched nationwide crackdowns and conducted large-scale raids under drives like ‘Operation Megh Chakra’ to bust online child sexual abuse rackets.
