Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Alahna Kindred

Worried Prince Harry wants to protect 'innocent' Archie and Lilibet from 'online harm'

Prince Harry wants to keep Archie and Lilibet safe from "online harm" while they're still "innocent".

The Duke of Sussex opened up about his two children during the launch of an "online safety toolkit" for kids, saying he hopes they will "never experience the online world as it exists now".

He spoke via video link from his home in California today at the launch of the 5Rights Foundation's Global Child Online Safety Toolkit.

During the event, which was called Making Child Online Safety a Reality, he said: "As parents, my wife and I are concerned about the next generation growing up in a world where they are treated as digital experiments for companies to make money and where things like hatred and harm are somehow normalised.

"We want our children and all children to feel empowered to speak up.

Prince Harry opened up about his two children during the launch of the 5Rights Foundation's Global Child Online Safety Toolkit (PA)

"My two little ones are still at their age of innocence. Sometimes I feel like I can keep them away from the online harm that they could face in the future forever, but I'm learning to know better."

Harry added: "Wherever you are and wherever you're listening from, I predict that your family, like mine, understands that the way we experience technology and social media isn't working and needs to be fixed.

"I'm not an expert on law or technology but I am a father - and I'm lucky enough to be a father with a platform.

"My kids are too young to have experienced the online world yet and I hope they never have to experience it as it exists now. No kid should have to."

He also criticised social media companies and added: "It's easy to say the business model of the internet and social media is broken, but it's not.

Meghan and Harry are expected to bring Archie and Lilibet to the UK for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee (alexilubomirski/Instagram)
Meghan and Harry at the Invictus Games (Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation)

"The internet business model is doing exactly what it is meant to do, pull us in, keep us scrolling, get us angry or anxious - or make us numb to the world around us.

"Social media makes unimaginable money from our time, our attention and our information."

The Duke warned that we are in a "critical moment".

5Rights Foundation is a British charity founded by Baroness Beeban Kidron, to help children and young people participate in the digital world.

The Duke's comments come after a Sussex insider claims he and Meghan Markle didn't want to be on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex instead asked to attend the Queen's Thanksgiving Service, which is due to take place on Friday, June 3.

It has emerged the couple plans to bring their children Archie and Lilibet when they return to the UK to join in the celebrations of the monarch's landmark 70 years on the throne.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.