A New Mexico state court ordered Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, to pay $567 million into a state fund for teen mental health prevention and treatment and to implement major platform changes, following claims that social media harms young people. The court in Santa Fe ruled on Thursday that Meta must introduce more stringent age verification, restrict users under 18 to no more than 90 hours a month, and shut off push notifications overnight and during school hours. Parents must consent to the number of “likes” on a child’s post being shown, and Meta must ban sexualized chatbot interactions with minors and blur images suspected of containing nudity. The combined $942 million, including an earlier jury award of $375 million on related consumer protection claims, far exceeds other penalties in youth-related social media cases, including a $6 million verdict against Meta and Alphabet’s Google in a California case in March. Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled that Meta created a public nuisance, agreeing that Facebook and Instagram were designed to addict young users and did not adequately protect them from sexual exploitation. The judge rejected some requested changes, including modifications to algorithms and features such as infinite scroll and autoplay videos, and rejected Meta’s call to dismiss the case under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Meta said the claims misrepresented the facts and that it will appeal the ruling.