Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has urged global health leaders to act to keep children safe online, adding they are being shaped by systems “designed to capture attention at any cost”.
Speaking at a memorial in Geneva, Switzerland, for people who have died after suffering digital harm, Meghan described children’s online safety as a “public health issue.”
The duchess made the remarks at the opening of the Lost Screen Memorial on Sunday, where she was joined by World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
She told global health leaders, ministers and families affected by online harm: “Children today are being shaped by systems designed to capture attention at any cost: relentless algorithms, exploitative engagement, and endless exposure to harmful content that they are not seeking out.”
The event featured an installation of 50 illuminated lightboxes, each displaying the mobile phone lockscreen image of a child who lost their life because of online violence and digital harm.
Referencing the display, the duchess said: “Each name belonged to a child who was loved beyond measure. A child whose laughter once filled a kitchen.
“Whose shoes once waited by a front door. Whose future once felt limitless. Now their faces ask the world questions we can no longer avoid.”
She added: “For too long, we have accepted a dangerous bargain: that modern connection must come at the cost of the innocence of childhood.
“That innovation excuses injury. That speed matters more than safety.”
Meghan said new technologies, such as AI, are “not just repeating past mistakes”, but “accelerating and amplifying” them, adding danger now travels globally.
She said: “We are seeing new forms of harm emerge faster than our systems are prepared to respond, affecting children at alarming scale and across borders.
“But these outcomes are not inevitable, and prevention begins with one simple principle: children must be safe by design, not safe by chance.
“Because danger now travels globally – instantly, invisibly, intimately. And our protections must do the same.”
She called on attendees to “speak up” and “demand better from the platforms shaping our children’s lives”.
Listening to the duchess’s speech was online safety campaigner Amy Neville, whose 14-year-old son Alexander is among the children featured in the memorial’s exhibition.
Meghan said the voice of Neville, and the voices of “so many” others, “remind us what is at stake”.
She added that, during an “increasingly polarized time,” adults must “all universally agree on one thing: we want our children to be safe.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have both advocated for stronger protections for children online.
In April last year, the couple unveiled a memorial in New York City to young people who lost their lives due to the harmful effects of social media and met families who believe social media played a part in the deaths of their youngsters.
Some five months later, Harry warned the impact of social media on children is “one of the most pressing issues of our time”, as he spoke at a gala in New York.
At the same event, Meghan said she and her husband often discussed how they would protect their own children, seven-year-old Archie and Lili, four, as they grow older.
Sunday’s memorial, hosted by the WHO and Archewell Philanthropies, the charitable foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, took place ahead of the 79th World Health Assembly.
It was also run in partnership with The Parents’ Network, a community of bereaved families advocating for safer online spaces for children and young people.
