Illinois is among 29 states that accused Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to keep kids hooked while hiding the potential harm.
Wednesday's settlement brings sweeping child safety reforms, such as daily time limits and pauses for children, nighttime blocks, school time limitations and stronger age checks.
Experts spoke with ABC7 about whether the required changes are enough to make the platforms safer for young people.
A bipartisan coalition of 52 attorneys general on Wednesday reached a landmark settlement with Meta that will change how young users interact with Instagram and Facebook.
The settlement includes a default daily time limit of two hours for users under 18 that can only be lifted by an individual's parent. Meta will also stop displaying numbers of likes or reactions for young users.
Young users will have access to an optional non-personalized feed, which doesn't use an algorithm to target them with content aimed to keep them endlessly scrolling.
The tech giant agreed to pay up to $18 billion in installments over the next 10 years, according to a statement issued by the company. Meta did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement.
Meta confirmed the settlement in its statement, saying the company "partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard."
"Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta. We want to get this right for parents and teens," the company said.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 51 others say the owner of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, intentionally makes the sites addictive to users, especially young people whose brains are not entirely formed yet. Many therapists are seeing the results.
"What's clinically urgent is understanding how social media is reorganizing the developing attachment system and what that means for how kids will form relationships, experience safety, and regulate their nervous systems for life," license clinician Jessica Hutchison said.
Illinois will get nearly $800 million of the more than $17 billion settlement with Meta. Attorney General Raoul says the state was one of the leaders in the lawsuit and his staff has been working on the case for at least the last three years. He says the majority of the money will go to remediation efforts to try to undo the psychological damage the sites have caused.
"The level of damage I believe that's been caused by social media platforms is unacceptable," Raoul said.
The attorney general says more important than the money is the changes the company promises.
ABC News contributed to this report.