The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have called for stronger protections for children online after unveiling a memorial in New York City to young people who lost their lives due to the harmful effects of social media.
Harry and Meghan joined a vigil and met families who believe social media played a part in the deaths of their youngsters.
The duke told BBC Breakfast “life is better off social media” and said “enough is not being done”, adding he was “grateful” that Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet were still too young to be online.
The couple’s appearance came as online regulator Ofcom set out new rules to legally require tech firms to block children’s access to harmful content from July or face massive fines.
Meanwhile, British and American parents who have lost loved ones joined together to stage a protest in New York aimed at improving online safety, laying 50 roses for their 50 children at the office of tech giant Meta.
Harry said: “The easiest thing to say is to keep your kids away from social media. The sad reality is that the kids who aren’t on social media normally get bullied at school because they can’t be part of the same conversations as everybody else.”
He added: “Life is better off social media. I say that as a parent and I say that as someone who has spoken to many of the kids here tonight who aren’t on social media because they have lost a brother or a sister to social media. But clearly enough is not being done.”
Harry described some of the stories he had heard as “truly harrowing”, adding: “I mean they’re crime scenes. Like full-blown crime scenes and yet these companies are getting away with it by saying we don’t need to give you disclosure.”
He criticised tech firms for not giving disclose to bereaved UK families because of privacy considerations.
“You are telling a parent, you are telling a dad and a mum that they can’t have the details of what their kid was up to on social media because of the privacy of their kid. The parents who have seen their kid from the time they were a child. It’s wrong,” he said.
The Lost Screen Memorial installation by the Sussexes’ Archewell Foundation, which will be in place for 24 hours, is made of 50 large smartphone-shaped light-boxes each displaying a lock screen photograph of a child or young person who died due to the harms of the internet.
Meghan said “one thing we can all agree on is that children should be safe” and described how it presented a “larger global issue”.
“No matter how polarised the world is, or what people may or may not agree on, one thing we can all agree on is that children should be safe, all of our children should be safe and I think tonight all of these stories solidify that,” she said.
She added: “It is a universal truth that our children are in harm’s way by what’s happening online”
Harry added: “We’re just grateful that our kids are too young to be on social media at this point.”
The Sussexes’ Archewell Foundation previously unveiled its Parents’ Network initiative as a support system for parents of children affected by online harm.
Among those in New York was Ellen Roome, whose 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney died in 2022, in what was believed to be an online challenge which went wrong.
Ms Roome has told how technology companies have refused to give her access to his accounts.
She has campaigned for a “Jools’s Law” to give parents the right to access their children’s online activity after they die.
Ofcom published its final children’s codes of practice on Thursday, setting out rules for how websites and apps must protect children from harmful content, including by using age assurance tools and reconfiguring algorithms to prevent young people accessing illegal and harmful material.
However, some online safety campaigners have argued the rules do not go far enough and give tech firms too much control over their approach and to define what content is harmful, rather than forcing them to block it.
