Meghan Markle and Prince Harry share emotional message following the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on online safety for children on Wednesday.
“We applaud the bravery and determination of the thousands of parents around the country whose advocacy resulted in this hearing,” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in a statement published on the Archwell Foundation’s website Wednesday.
The Archewell Foundation has been working with families to provide a support network for parents dealing with grief or who have children managing serious mental health conditions as a result of their exposure to harmful online content, the foundation noted.
“Over the past few years, we have spent time with many of these families, listening to their heartache and their hopes for the urgent change that is needed in the online space,” Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s statement continued. “This is an issue that transcends division and party lines, as we saw today at the Senate hearing.”
“The best parenting in the world cannot keep children safe from these platforms,” Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, said.
Meghan and Prince Harry have spent years working together with the relatives and loved ones of victims, and used their feedback to present suggestions to political leaders on how a positive change could be made.
Their statement ended with a quote from a father whose child had been impacted by the harmful effects of social media: “If love could have saved them, all of our children would still be here. This is not the time to pass the buck of responsibility. It’s the time to make necessary change at the source to keep our children safe.”
Their statement followed a Congressional hearing on social media, during which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel were among those whom senators called out for the impacts their platforms have on the general public, especially young and impressionable people.
Parents of children who have suffered or died due to harmful online content or pressures were also in attendance at the hearing.
During Wednesday’s “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis” hearing, Zuckerberg, 39, apologized after being told about the large number of female minors who had been exposed to nudity on apps that he oversees.
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through,” he said while facing the crowd. “It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”
He added, “This is why we have invested so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”
Spiegel, 33, apologized as well.
Meghan and Harry previously addressed the challenges of parenting and social media at a World Mental Health Day event in New York in October.
The Suits alum stated that after hearing some families speak, “it was impossible not to be in tears hearing their stories because it’s just that devastating.”
“Social media isn’t going away,” Megan added.
“I think for us, for myself and my wife, with kids growing up in a digital age, the priority here is to again turn pain into purpose and provide as much support as well as a spotlight and a platform for these parents to come together, to heal, to grieve and to also collectively focus on solutions so that no other family anywhere has to go through what they’ve been through,” Harry said.
