A court in the US has ordered Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta to pay $567 (£421.5 million) to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid said at a ruling in New Mexico late on Thursday that the bulk of the money – $420 million (£312.23 million) – will be used for treatment services for young people.
The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years.
The new penalty is in addition to the $375 million (£278.9 million) in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March, after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.
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