Concerned Prince Harry wants to protect ‘innocent’ Archie and Lilibet from ‘online harm’

The Duke of Sussex said he hopes his children will “never experience the online world as it exists now” as he spoke during the launch of an online safety toolkit for children

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Prince Harry talks about the dangers of social media for children

Prince Harry wants to protect Archie and Lilibet from “online harm” while they’re still “innocent”.

Speaking about his two children during the launch of an “online safety toolkit” for children, the Duke of Sussex said he hopes they “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, titled Making Child Online Safety a Reality, he said: “As parents, my wife and I are concerned that the next generation will grow up in a world where they will be treated as digital experiments for companies to make money and where things like hatred and harm are sort of normalized.

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

“My two little ones are still in their innocent years. Sometimes I feel like I can protect them forever from the online harm they may face in the future, but I’m learning to know better.”

Harry added: “Wherever you are and wherever you’re listening from, I predict 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 in law or technology, but I’m a dad — and I’m fortunate to be a dad with a platform.

“My children are too young to have experienced the online world and I hope they never have to experience it as it exists now. No child should have to do that.”

He also criticized social media companies, adding: “It’s easy to say that the business model of the internet and social media is broken, but it’s not.

“The internet business model does exactly what it’s designed to do: draw us in, keep us scrolling, make us angry or scared — or deaf to the world around us.

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

The Duke warned that we are at a “critical moment”.

The 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 claimed he and Meghan Markle didn’t want to be on the balcony of Buckingham Palace 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 3 June.

It has emerged that the couple plan to bring their children Archie and Lilibet with them when they return to the UK to attend celebrations marking the monarch’s 70th anniversary on the throne.