Prince Harry urges social media firms to put child safety first at European Parliament

A solo keynote in Brussels

Prince Harry gave a solo keynote at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, at an event on online safety for children. Meghan Markle had been due to speak alongside him but stepped back, saying she was not "strong enough emotionally". She sat in the front row, listened closely and afterwards placed a hand on Harry's arm. She ignored shouts from reporters asking how she was coping. The couple were seen arriving around 8:00 local time, and the building was packed with press and security, while dozens of parliament staff and lobbyists gathered outside to catch a glimpse of them.

Harry's call for safety by design

Harry told the parliament that platforms should build in "safety by design" and warned companies about the content they put in front of young users. He said children should be able to go online and find friends, interests and places where they feel understood, but that they deserve to feel safe wherever they are, whether in a classroom or on a playground. He acknowledged "significant progress" in parents' fight against the companies, but urged them to go further and to be more transparent. He put his central request to them directly:

“Don't put anything in front of our children that you wouldn't put in front of your own children.”

He pointed out that many of these companies do not allow their own children on social media, because they know the dangers.

Parents locked out of children's phones

Harry said privacy policies had blocked parents from learning how their children died, and that some had waited years, in one instance eight years, to gain access to a child's phone. "That cannot be right," he said, visibly upset as he spoke. He framed the whole effort around prevention and said that once a product is in a child's hands, it is already too late. He told the parliament that he was there as a father and Meghan as a mother, to support parents who had lost children to online harm.

“I'm not here as an expert or a politician. I'm here as a father. My wife, as a mother.”

Sandra Spitaels and the Lost Screen Memorial

Sandra Spitaels, a Belgian mother whose 15-year-old son died in 2017 after a nude image of him was posted online, spoke to the audience and broke down in tears, stumbling over her words. Meghan rose to hug her after the speech. During a tour of the Lost Screen Memorial, the duchess placed a hand on Spitaels' back and rubbed it as they talked, while Harry asked her, "Are you OK?" The memorial, a travelling art installation with large-scale mobile phone screens showing the faces of 50 children who have died from harm caused by social media, marked its opening at the event.

The case behind the visit

Thomas Markle Sr appeared in a US court on Friday, 6 November, charged with possession of child sexual abuse material. Allegations surrounding him surfaced in October, and 10 November was the first time Meghan had been seen in public since then. Harry's speech did not directly mention her father.

Brussels rules for minors

The European Commission regulates online platforms under the Digital Services Act and is preparing a separate regime for minors, the Kids Act. Under the proposal, under-13s would be barred from most social media platforms, and parental control requirements would be formalised in law. The internal market committee leads Parliament's negotiations on the Kids Act and was meeting in a quieter room while the royal event took place. Two of its members, Hungarian conservative Dóra Dávid and Slovak liberal Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová, attended the royal event.