Meta has agreed to pay $18 billion over 10 years to settle a lawsuit with 48 U.S. states over child safety on Instagram and Facebook.

The company will also strengthen age checks, limit users under 18 to two hours a day, and block them from the apps between midnight and 6 a.m.

It will hide "like" counts and make most new safeguards default settings.

These rules apply only in the U.S. and will last for 10 years.

Critics say the settlement is a step forward but not enough.

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director, called it a "significant milestone" but warned that Meta still gets to define what counts as harm.

He said the two-hour limit does not fix the addictive design of content recommendations.

Josh Golin, head of the nonprofit Fairplay, said the deal focuses too much on giving parents tools instead of turning off harmful algorithms by default.

Meta has agreed to improve its age-verification technology and to have outside audits check how well it works.

The settlement includes specific goals for false positives, where minors are wrongly identified as over 18.

If a user is removed for being under 13, Meta will also check the ages of that user's friends.

Béjar said the age assurance section is "reasonably good" because it includes measurement and independent testing.

Some safety features, like turning off video autoplay or showing posts in chronological order, will still be opt-in.

Researchers have found that many past Meta protections were ineffective.

Yaël Eisenstat, a former Meta employee and now policy director at the Cybersafety Research Center, said the settlement is "monumental" because it shows safer designs are technically possible.

She added that no single fix will solve everything, and more work is needed.

The settlement still requires approval from a judge.