Meghan Markle has openly admitted she is ‘terrified’ at the prospect of her children Archie and Lilibet one day using social media – as she issues a warning about the dangers of the online world for today’s youth.
The 42-year-old Duchess of Sussex – who once boasted more than 11 million followers on her and Harry’s now-defunct Instagram account – revealed her ‘concerns’ about her four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter while appearing at a World Mental Health Day event on Tuesday -panel event in New York City with her husband, Prince Harry.
After hearing the stories of several parents who had ‘suffered tragic loss related to their child’s social media use’, Harry and Meghan took to the stage to open up about their own experiences with social media – and their own fears for its future as parents of two young children.
“As parents, although our children are 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 community and something spiraled, and there’s no way to hear that and not try to help these families tell their stories don’t hear.”
Meghan Markle has openly admitted she is ‘terrified’ at the prospect of her children Archie and Lilibet using social media one day
The 42-year-old mother-of-two said she was worried about the impact social media would have on her four-year-old son Archie and two-year-old daughter Lilibet when they started using it
Meghan went on to admit that while her children are not yet at an age where they use social media – or are even aware of it – she knows the time is fast approaching when they will be exposed to it in some way.
In a clip posted on Twitter by Huffington Post reporter Carly LedbetterMeghan described her role as a mother as the ‘most important thing in her life outside of being a wife’ to Prince Harry, saying: ‘Being a mother is the most important thing in my whole life… outside of course being’ to be a mother wife for this one.
“But I will say, I feel lucky that our kids are at an age, again, pretty young, so it’s not in our immediate future, but I also feel scared about how it keeps changing.
‘And it will be before us. As they say, “Being a parent, the days are long, but the years are short.” So it worries me, but I am also given a lot of hope and a lot of energy by the progress we have made in the past year.’
Meghan no longer has an active public social media account, but before she started dating Prince Harry, she was a prolific Instagram user, posting regular updates about her life and her time on TV show Suits. work shared with her two million followers.
That account was deleted shortly after her engagement to Prince Harry was announced and she has not set up another public personal Instagram since.
In March 2020, Meghan and Harry announced that they would be withdrawing from social media entirely, issuing a statement on their Sussex Royal Instagram account that they wanted to find a ‘new chapter to understand how they can best contribute’.
Speaking about the stories shared by the parents who took part in the panel, the Duchess of Sussex admitted she was brought to tears by the ‘devastating’ experiences they shared with her and Harry. who joined a group of mothers and fathers over the past year in their efforts to create a safer online space for young people.
“A year ago when we met some of the families, 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 and over, and it’s still going to have the same emotional impact because it’s just 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 lucky that our children are … quite young so (social media) is not in our immediate future, but I also feel scared about how it continues to change
Today’s event is the latest time Meghan and Harry have spoken out to issue warnings about the dangers of social media – with the Duke of Sussex writing an entire op-ed in 2020 warning that it was a ‘crisis of hate’ instigator.
In the piece, written for the business magazine Fast Company and headlined ‘Social media is dividing us. Together we can redesign it,’ says Harry that social media, as it stands, is ‘sick’.
“The digital landscape is bad and companies like yours have a chance 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; by truth instead of misinformation; through fairness and inclusiveness instead of unfairness and fear-mongering; by free, rather than armed, speech.’
Back in 2019, he also suggested that social media was ‘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 very mind-changing time.
‘But we are in an exciting time because everyone in this room has an opportunity to really make a difference so that young people coming through are less attached to their phones.
“They can be as connected as they want to be, but they also have to have a human connection. Without that human connection, when you do have a problem, you have nowhere to go and the only place you can go is online and you (are) likely to be bullied.
‘Every one of us has mental health. There is good mental health and there is bad mental health and just because you may or may not suffer from mental illness, your bad mental health affects everyone around you.
‘The younger generation feels so much more positive about this. There is no point in saying ”I’m fine, I feel fine”. Everyone in this room is susceptible to mental illness.’
Meghan Markle admits that she is ‘FRIGHTENED’ about Archie and Lilibet using social media – as she gushes that ‘being a mom is the most important thing in her life… outside of being a wife’ to Prince Harry
