By Eunice Nnachi
For millions of children and teenagers, Facebook and Instagram are simply places to share pictures, watch videos, chat with friends and follow trends.
But behind the likes, comments and endless scrolling, a much bigger question is now being asked in American courts:
Are social media platforms doing enough to protect children?
That question has moved beyond allegations.
In New Mexico, a court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay $942 million after a landmark case over the impact of its platforms on children. The judgment followed a $375 million jury penalty and a further $567 million ordered by the judge for remedies addressing the harm.
The case accused Meta of contributing to young people’s mental-health problems and failing to adequately protect children from sexual exploitation and other dangers on its platforms.
For parents, however, the legal language tells only part of the story.
Behind every statistic is a child
Imagine a teenager returning from school.
The phone comes out.
One video becomes another. A notification appears. A friend posts something. Another video starts automatically.
The child tells themselves, “Just five more minutes.”
Suddenly, an hour has passed.
The New Mexico case focused heavily on allegations that platform features designed to maximise engagement can keep young users online for extended periods. The court found Meta’s platforms contributed significantly to the state’s youth mental-health crisis and described them as a public nuisance.
But the concerns go beyond screen time.
The state also accused Meta’s platforms of exposing children to sexual exploitation and allowing adults to target minors.
That means the child behind the screen is not simply a user.
They can also become a target.
The court wants Meta to change how children use its platforms
The New Mexico judgment goes beyond demanding money.
The court ordered Meta to introduce significant safeguards for young users, including mandatory time-use limits, stronger age verification, restrictions on overnight notifications, stronger protections against child sexual exploitation and greater privacy protections for minors.
The order also includes restrictions designed to reduce unwanted contact between minors and adults and additional safeguards around Meta’s AI chatbot interactions with young people.
A significant portion of the money will also go toward helping young people.
According to reporting on the judgment, $420 million of the $567 million remedy will support treatment services, while other funds will support awareness, prevention and screening programmes over five years.
In other words, the court is not simply saying: Pay the money and move on.
It is saying: Change the system and help repair the damage.
Meta plans to fight back
Meta disagrees with the judgment and has said it plans to appeal.
The company maintains that it has invested heavily in safety measures for young users and has disputed the allegations made against it.
And the legal battle is far from over.
While New Mexico has already delivered a major blow to Meta, another major case involving 29 US states is currently being heard in California. Those states accuse Meta of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram in ways that encourage young users to remain engaged, while also alleging violations involving children’s privacy. Meta denies the allegations.
What does this mean for parents?
The New Mexico ruling sends a message that should concern every parent — not because social media is automatically bad, but because children are especially vulnerable in the digital environment.
Parents may know their children have Instagram or Facebook accounts.
But do they know who is messaging them?
Do they know what videos are being recommended?
Do they know how long their children spend online every night?
Do they know what personal information is being collected?
And perhaps most importantly:
Does the child know what to do when something online makes them uncomfortable or afraid?
These questions cannot be answered by technology companies alone.
Parents need digital-safety education.
Schools need to teach children how to navigate online spaces safely.
Governments need effective child-protection and privacy laws.
And technology companies need to accept that protecting children cannot be treated as an afterthought.
The lesson for Nigeria and Africa
Although the judgment was delivered in New Mexico, its message reaches far beyond the United States.
Across Nigeria, millions of young people are growing up with smartphones and social media.
A child can be sitting in a home in Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Lagos or Abuja and be exposed to the same digital risks as a child thousands of kilometres away.
Parents may not always understand the technology their children use.
That makes education even more important.
Children should be taught not to share private information with strangers, not to send intimate images, how to report suspicious accounts and when to tell a trusted adult that something has gone wrong.
This is bigger than Facebook and Instagram
At its heart, the New Mexico case is not simply about a $942 million judgment.
It is about responsibility.
When a platform is powerful enough to influence what millions of children see, who they communicate with and how long they remain online, society must ask what responsibility comes with that power.
Because behind every account is a real child.
Behind every username is a young person with hopes, fears and vulnerabilities.
And behind every statistic about online harm is a family that may have to live with the consequences.
The courtroom battle involving Meta may eventually determine how social media companies operate.
But for parents, the lesson is already clear:
Children should never have to sacrifice their safety, privacy or mental wellbeing simply because the digital world was not designed with them in mind.
And perhaps the most important question is no longer how many children are online?
It is:
How safe are they when they are there?
