On stage at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual summit on Tuesday, Prince Harry stood in front of a screen that showed photographs of children on phone screens. During the speech’s most emotional moment, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and mentioned his own children, Archie and Lilibet.
“My lock screen is a picture of my kids. What’s on yours?” he said. “These children, and thousands more, meant the world to their families. The beautiful faces you see before you, their smiles, their dreams.” He added that they were lost too soon “because of social media.”
Harry delivered his speech to explain why he and wife Meghan Markle launched the Archewell Foundation’s Parent Network, an online support group for parents whose children have suffered from harms online. He also made a reference to a few of his tabloid misadventures when talking about what has changed about childhood today. “Some say kids will be kids and that may well be true. Kids may get into trouble—I know a thing or two about that,” he said. “But our kids are being targeted. The harmful effects of social media are made by design.”
Though his speaking slot followed appearances by Bill Clinton, Samantha Power, Laurene Powell Jobs, and José Andrés, his comments about empowering young people to change technology drew some of the morning’s most enthusiastic applause.
Harry and Meghan launched the network, a part of their larger efforts to promote online safety, in an August interview with CBS This Morning where they also opened up about their experiences getting to know parents whose children died of suicide following online bullying or overdosing on drugs purchased on social media. In his CGI speech, Harry also mentioned some of the more common harms.
“As the digital landscape has evolved, we’ve seen rising polarization, social unrest, and a disconnect that often manifests itself in violence and fear,” he said. “Personal social connections have fallen secondary to alternative digital realities. These platforms are designed to create addiction.”
The speech was a somber beginning to the prince’s second day attending events connected to the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week. Following the event, he attended a panel discussion at the UN, where he appeared alongside King Letsie III and Queen Masenate Mohato Seeiso of Lesotho to discuss the work of Sentebale, the HIV/AIDS prevention charity he founded in 2003 following time spent in the country with Letsie’s brother Prince Seesio.
