Due to injury to teenagers: Meta will pay almost a billion dollars

The meaning of the judgment is not limited to money. The court ordered Meta to make a series of changes to its systems for young users in New Mexico over five years. Among other things, it was determined that the company would have to limit the time teenagers use Facebook and Instagram, reduce notifications at certain hours, tighten the restrictions on establishing contact between adults and minors, and by default hide the number of “likes” on content shown to young users.

The ruling also concerns the use of artificial intelligence. Meta was required to prevent children in New Mexico from having romantic or sexual conversations with its chatbots, as well as to block the possibility that adult users would activate the AI ​​systems to simulate or discuss sexual interactions with children.

In addition, the company will be required to continue improving its means of identifying the age of users. The court ruled that Meta should develop in the next two years a dedicated system that will help identify users under the age of 13, using various signals including social relationships and the types of content that users upload and consume. The company was also required to cooperate with schools or child protection organizations in establishing a system that would allow education staff to report accounts suspected of belonging to children who are too young.

In response, Meta announced that it would appeal the verdict. The company claimed that it invests in identifying and removing harmful content and that the lawsuit distorts its activity in the field of youth protection. During the trial she even claimed that some of the changes demanded by the state were technologically impractical.