Prince Harry urges social media firms to take responsibility at European Parliament

Harry's case to MEPs

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, addressed MEPs and European Commission representatives on Tuesday, 10 November, at a panel called 'Beyond promises: building a digital future that works for children', held in the European Parliament and promoted by the European People's Party. He argued that social media companies should answer for harm to minors and that relying on incentives had already failed. Harry said the firms had been encouraged for years to change, and that trusting them had not worked either. He backed the EU Kids Act, legislation still being drafted, because it would reverse the burden of proof so that companies rather than parents must show responsibility. He also called for safety by design, saying that a product which reaches a child's phone or app has already come too late.

Meghan's withdrawn speech

Meghan Markle was expected to speak at the event but did not. According to Sky News, she did not feel emotionally strong enough to speak in public after the arrest of her father, Thomas Markle Sr, 82, who is accused in the United States of possessing child sexual abuse material. She left shortly after the opening speeches and the exhibition inauguration, leaving her husband to bring the testimony of the parents the couple had met to Parliament. Harry said that he and Meghan had only given those parents a platform. The Duke explained that the couple first took up the issue in 2020, after a decade of warnings from experts around the world that had gone unheeded.

The Lost Screen Memorial

The couple walked the red carpet at the Parliament's ceremonial entrance, accompanied by Spanish MEP Antonio López-Istúriz White of the EPP, and gave no statements to the cameras. The exhibition, which he hosts, honours minors who died after harm suffered through social media and gives a voice to their families. Sandra Spitaels, mother of Glenn, was scheduled to tell her family's story, while European Parliament president Roberta Metsola delivered the opening speech. Civil society groups invited to share their experience include Spain's Anar, Italy's Telefono Azzurro, the European Association for Digital Transition, Sweden's World Childhood Foundation, 5Rights Foundation and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The exhibition sits within the European debate on online safety for minors, which includes the proposed Kids Act and the implementation of the EU AI Act.

Lobbying, AI and the wider fight

Harry said companies were investing large sums in sectors that serve their interests and that a huge amount of money was going into lobbying in Brussels. He said much of that effort was being ignored, while some very loud voices backed by large sums did not represent the majority. He urged MEPs not to place social media at the bottom of their list, calling it one of the few issues on which the whole world could find common ground. He pointed to progress in the United States over the past twelve months in parents' campaigns against large companies, crediting the families who told their stories. He described the progress made by the European Parliament and the EU as considerable and deeply necessary. He also said more children were taking their own lives or suffering permanent harm, and that the experience of more than 20 years with social media should guide the new battle with artificial intelligence.