New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children’s mental health
新墨西哥州法院裁定 Meta 因损害儿童心理健康需赔偿 5.67 亿美元
A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to pay $567m into a fund aimed at redressing adverse mental health impacts from the social media giant’s platforms. 新墨西哥州一家法院已下令 Facebook 母公司 Meta 向一个基金支付 5.67 亿美元，旨在弥补该社交媒体巨头旗下平台对用户造成的负面心理健康影响。
The Thursday ruling comes as a part of the second phase of a landmark trial the social media giant lost in March. At the time, a jury found that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms, and imposed the maximum penalty: a $375m fine. 周四的裁决是该社交媒体巨头在三月份败诉的一场里程碑式审判的第二阶段。当时，陪审团裁定该公司明知故犯地损害了儿童的心理健康，并隐瞒了其平台上存在的儿童性剥削信息，因此处以最高罚款：3.75 亿美元。
The ruling on Thursday is an addition to that fine, bringing the total amount Meta is responsible for to $942m. 周四的裁决是在上述罚款基础上的追加，使 Meta 需承担的总金额达到 9.42 亿美元。
Judge Bryan Biedscheid said the bulk of the money – $420m – would be used for treatment services for young people in New Mexico. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years. 布莱恩·比德沙伊德（Bryan Biedscheid）法官表示，这笔资金中的大部分（4.2 亿美元）将用于为新墨西哥州的年轻人提供治疗服务。其余资金将在未来五年内用于意识提升、预防工作、筛查服务及其他相关费用。
The March trial was the first to find Meta liable for acts committed on its platform, and followed a 2023 Guardian investigation that revealed how Facebook and Instagram had become marketplaces for child sex trafficking. 三月份的审判是首次裁定 Meta 需为其平台上的行为承担责任，此前《卫报》2023 年的一项调查揭露了 Facebook 和 Instagram 如何沦为儿童性贩运的市场。
Several former Meta moderators told the Guardian there were instances where they flagged harmful content related to child grooming, but the cases were not escalated. 几位 Meta 前内容审核员告诉《卫报》，他们曾多次标记与诱骗儿童相关的有害内容，但这些案件并未得到上报处理。
In the second phase of the trial, which began in May, prosecutors had 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. 在五月份开始的审判第二阶段中，检察官要求法官强制 Meta 进行根本性变革，旨在抑制成瘾性功能、改进年龄验证，并通过默认隐私设置和更严格的监管来防止儿童性剥削。
The judge has also ordered other changes, including that Facebook and Instagram build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices, and tools to address inappropriate content. 法官还下令进行其他改革，包括要求 Facebook 和 Instagram 建立横幅和信息页面，以清晰地解释其保护功能、最佳实践以及处理不当内容的工具。
Those changes, and an educational campaign in New Mexico, would be subject to review by the state. 这些改革以及在新墨西哥州开展的教育活动将接受该州的审查。
The court said federal children’s privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. The court also noted that ordering verification of children’s ages only for Meta and not other social media companies would be “inequitable and unduly injurious” to the company. 法院表示，联邦儿童隐私法禁止 Meta 对 13 岁以下儿童使用年龄验证工具。法院还指出，仅要求 Meta 而非其他社交媒体公司进行年龄验证，对该公司而言是“不公平且过度损害”的。
Instead, the court ordered Meta to continue to improve its age-assurance tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people’s age based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume. Meta must also attempt to develop a dedicated “under-13-years-of-age prediction model” in the next two years. 相反，法院命令 Meta 继续改进其在新墨西哥州的年龄保证工具，包括利用人工智能根据用户的好友关系以及发布和消费的内容类型等信号来判断用户年龄。Meta 还必须在未来两年内尝试开发专门的“13 岁以下预测模型”。
Additionally, Meta should also request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If it determines a user to be under 13, or under 18 but without being able to estimate a specific age, Meta must treat the user as under 13 or under 18 until the user verifies their age. 此外，Meta 还应要求其估计在新墨西哥州未满 13 岁的 Instagram 和 Facebook 用户提供年龄证明。如果 Meta 认定用户未满 13 岁，或未满 18 岁但无法估算具体年龄，则必须将该用户视为 13 岁以下或 18 岁以下，直到用户验证其年龄为止。
The company must also partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13. And it must delete personal information it has collected on users under 13. The court also ordered Meta to report on its progress twice a year on how it is complying with the abatement measures. 该公司还必须与学校或儿童安全组织合作，建立一个举报门户网站，供学校教职员工标记可能未满 13 岁的用户。此外，它必须删除已收集的 13 岁以下用户的个人信息。法院还要求 Meta 每半年报告一次其在遵守这些补救措施方面的进展。
New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, hailed the judgment. 新墨西哥州总检察长劳尔·托雷斯（Raúl Torrez）对这一判决表示赞赏。
“This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world’s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence,” Torrez said in a statement. “此案的核心始终是保护儿童、支持家庭，并确保全球最大的科技公司之一不能在危害年轻人的行为中获利而无需承担后果，”托雷斯在一份声明中表示。
“Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online.” “今天的裁决对于每一位担心社交媒体对孩子影响的家长，以及每一位理应在更安全的网络环境中成长的孩子来说，都是一场胜利。”
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement to the Guardian on Thursday that the company “disagrees with the ruling” and planned to appeal. Meta 发言人在周四给《卫报》的一份声明中表示，该公司“不同意这一裁决”，并计划提出上诉。
“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts,” the statement continued. 声明继续写道：“我们努力确保人们在我们平台上的安全，并对识别和清除不良行为者及有害内容所面临的挑战保持透明。我们对保护青少年在线安全的记录充满信心，并将继续针对歪曲事实的指控进行辩护。”
The total amount Meta is responsible for is a small fraction of its annual profit, which was about $60bn in 2025. Still, it represents another setback for Meta as it faces a wave of accusations from families of children harmed by social media. Meta 需承担的总金额仅为其 2025 年约 600 亿美元年度利润的一小部分。尽管如此，这对于面临受社交媒体伤害儿童家庭指控浪潮的 Meta 来说，仍是又一次挫折。
The company is embroiled in a slew of lawsuits in other US states over its alleged harms to young people. In a trial in Tennessee that began last month, the state has accused the company of disregarding internal warnings about teenagers’ compulsive use of Instagram, which has been linked to eating disorders and depression, among other adverse effects. Meta is also gearing up for a trial later this month in federal court in Oakland, California. 该公司在美国其他州也卷入了多起诉讼，指控其对年轻人造成伤害。在上个月开始的田纳西州审判中，该州指控 Meta 无视有关青少年强迫性使用 Instagram 的内部警告，而这种使用习惯已被证实与饮食失调、抑郁症及其他负面影响有关。Meta 也正在为本月晚些时候在加利福尼亚州奥克兰联邦法院进行的审判做准备。
What comes out of New Mexico is the first of many dominoes that could fall for Meta, said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University focusing on social media and cybersecurity. 东北大学专注于社交媒体和网络安全的助理教授劳拉·埃德尔森（Laura Edelson）表示，新墨西哥州的判决可能是 Meta 将面临的多米诺骨牌效应中的第一张。
“America is not going to pass a law that bans social media,” Edelson said. “But if companies like Meta know they’re causing harm to users by product design, the states are finally finding a way to rein this in.” “美国不会通过一项禁止社交媒体的法律，”埃德尔森说。“但如果像 Meta 这样的公司明知其产品设计正在伤害用户，各州最终正在找到遏制这种行为的方法。”