Prince Harry: I hope my children never have to live with social media as it is now

The Duke of Sussex has said he hopes his own children never experience social media as it exists today, as he accused companies of designing platforms “at the expense of young people”.

The Duke, speaking via Zoom at the launch of a new report into child safety online, said the current industry has made it impossible for parents to protect their children from harm.

Instead, he said children experience a world where they are "targeted and fed dangerous content" and “treated as digital experiments to make money”.

In his strongest statement about online harm to date, he warned: “Many of these systems are by design aiming to keep our kids hooked for years to come regardless of how their time online impacts their self-confidence, self-worth or safety.”

Although he said he was “not an expert on law, or technology”, he added: “But I am a father and I'm lucky enough to be a father with a platform.

“My kids are too young to have experienced the online world, yet. And I hope they never have to experience it as it exists now. No kid should have to.

“It's easy to say the business model of the internet and social media is broken, but it's not.

“The internet business model is doing exactly what it's meant to do - pull us in, keep us scrolling, get us angry, anxious or make us numb to the world around us.

“That's bad enough when it's meant for adults, but even worse, it's meant to do the same to our kids.

“The social media industry makes unimaginable money from our time, our attention and our information, literally.

“Their financial model is based on keeping us online and engaged so they can vacuum up our most personal information and time.”

Social media 'needs to be fixed'

Appearing alongside young people for the launch of a toolkit called Making Child Online Safety a Reality, the Duke said it is time to “understand that the way we experience technology like social isn't working and needs to be fixed”.

Young people know they are being harmed, he said, while parents fear they will lose their children to suicide.

The toolkit, by 5Rights Foundation, is supported by the African Union, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the European Union and global children’s rights NGOs.

It asks policymakers to work in five categories - identify risk and mitigate harm; promote access, accessibility and inclusion; build a chain of responsibility and collaboration; integrate child-centred design; and ensure effectiveness.

The Duke said of Archie, three, and Lilibet, who will be one in June: “My two little ones are still of the age of innocence.

“Sometimes, I feel I can keep them away from online harms they could face in the future forever, but I'm learning to know better.

“I'm learning that without meaningful change to the way we hold technology accountable and approach designing technology in the future, we will not be able to stop our kids being subjected to addictive products where they are exposed to content they should never see and experience and should never have to go through.”

Platforms 'designed at the expense of young people'

He argued the world now needs new laws, in combination with public pressure, strong leadership, and “continued research into what some of the biggest companies in the world are hiding behind closed doors”.

He added: “It shouldn't have to take a whistleblower or other disturbing revelations to learn what social media companies have known for a long time: that their platforms are designed at the expense of young people.

“As parents, my wife and I are concerned about the next generation growing up in a world where they are treated as digital experiments to make money, and where things like hatred and harm are somehow normalised.

“None of us wants a world where their kids are targeted and fed dangerous content rather than being able to learn, connect and play freely.

"We want our children and all children to feel empowered to speak up and call for change when older generations are not capable of seeing, or choose to ignore, all the ways new technology is shaping society.”

The report calls on countries to establish a child online safety policy, with prime ministers and presidents asked to commit to it on the national and the international stage.

Among the current dangers, it identifies “a wide range of risks from commercial surveillance or exploitation, exposure to false information or scams, predators or bullying, while a lesser number suffer the acute harm of child sexual abuse”.