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Meghan Markle has candidly admitted she is ‘terrified’ by the prospect of her children, Archie and Lilibet, ever using social media – as she warns of the dangers of the online world for today’s youth.
The 42-year-old Duchess of Sussex – who once had more than 11 million followers on her and Harry’s now-defunct Instagram account – laid bare her ‘concerns’ about her four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter while appearing with husband Prince Harry on Tuesday at a World Mental Health Day panel event in New York City.
After hearing the stories of several parents who have suffered “tragic loss related to their child’s use of social media,” Harry and Meghan took to the stage to share their own experiences with social media — and their own fears about the future of their child as parents. two young children.
“As parents, even though our children are still very young, they are two and a half and four and a half… but social media is not going away,” she said in a video shared by The Hollywood Reporter.
“I think by design there was an entry point that was supposed to be positive in creating a community and something was conveyed, and there’s no way to hear that and not try to help these families tell their stories to belong.’
Meghan Markle has honestly admitted she is ‘scared’ by the prospect of her children, Archie and Lilibet, ever using social media
The 42-year-old mother of two said she is ‘worried’ about the impact social media will have on her four-year-old son Archie and two-year-old daughter Lilibet if they start using it
Meghan further admitted that while her children are not yet at an age where they are using social media – or even aware of it – she knows the time is quickly approaching when they will be exposed to it in some way exposed.
In an excerpt posted to Twitter by a Huffington Post reporter Carly LedbetterDescribing her role as a mother as the “most important thing in her life outside of being a woman” to Prince Harry, Meghan said: “Being a mother is the most important thing in my entire life… outside of being this one’s wife, of course.”
“But I will say that I feel fortunate that our children are at an age that, again, is still quite young, so this is not in our immediate future, but I also fear the way it continues to change.
“And this will be before us. As they say, “As a parent, the days are long, but the years are short.” So it worries me, but I also get a lot of hope and a lot of energy from the progress we’ve made over the past year.”
Speaking about the stories of the parents who took part in the panel, the Duchess of Sussex admitted she was reduced to tears by the “devastating” experiences they shared with her and Harry, who have worked with a group of mothers and fathers to last year in their efforts to create a safer online space for young people.
“When we met some of the families a year ago, not all of them, it was impossible not to be in tears because I’m sure so many of you have heard these stories today,” she said.
“You can hear these stories over and over again, and it will still have the same emotional impact because it’s so devastating.”
Both Meghan and Harry, 39, have been outspoken about the dangers of social media in recent years – with the Duke of Sussex warning in 2020 that it was fueling a ‘crisis of hate’
The Duchess of Sussex said: ‘I feel fortunate that our children… are quite young so (social media) is not in our immediate future, but I also fear how it continues to change
Today’s event marks the latest time Meghan and Harry have spoken out to warn about the dangers of social media – with the Duke of Sussex writing an entire op-ed in 2020 warning that it is fueling a “crisis of hate.”
In the piece, written for business magazine Fast Company, with the headline ‘Social media divides us. Together we can redesign it,” Harry said social media in its current form was “not good.”
‘The digital landscape is not good and companies like yours have an opportunity to rethink your role in funding and supporting online platforms that have contributed to, fueled and created the conditions for a crisis of hate, a crisis of health and a crisis of truth,’ he wrote.
He called for online communities to be “defined more by compassion than hate; through truth instead of misinformation; through equality and inclusivity instead of injustice and fear-mongering; through free, rather than weaponized, expression.”
In 2019, he also suggested that social media is “more addictive than drugs and alcohol” while taking part in a roundtable discussion on young people’s mental health at a YMCA in London.
“Social media is more addictive than drugs and alcohol,” he said at the event.
‘Yes, it is more dangerous because it is normalized and there are no restrictions. So we are in a truly mind-expanding time.
“But we’re in an exciting time because everyone in this room has an opportunity to actually make a difference, so that young people coming in are less connected to their phones.
“They can be as connected as they want, but they also need to have a human connection. Without that human connection, if you have a problem, you have nowhere to go and the only place you can go is online and (you’ll probably be) bullied.
“Each of us has mental health. There’s good mental health and there’s bad mental health, and just because you do or don’t suffer from a mental illness, your poor mental health affects everyone around you.
‘The younger generation is so much more positive about this. There’s no point in saying, “I’m fine, I feel good.” Everyone in this room is susceptible to mental illness.”