‘It shouldn’t have come to this’: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle issue a statement on Australia’s social media ban
Australia’s social media ban has sparked global “envy” and royal praise, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex warning “it shouldn’t have come to this”.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have praised “Australia’s leadership” over the nation’s landmark social media ban for under-16s.
In a lengthy statement posted on their Archewell Foundation website, the LA-based royals
praised Australia’s “bold action” but “it shouldn’t have come to this”.
“We celebrate Australia’s leadership for seeing and acting on how these technology companies are negatively impacting young people with little to no recourse or accountability, and feeble efforts from the companies to stem the flow of harms,” the statement read.
“This bold, decisive action to protect children at a critical moment in their development sends a strong signal that a child’s mind is not a commodity to be exploited.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex continue: “It buys young people valuable time back in their childhoods, but it doesn’t fix the fundamental issue we all still face with social media platforms.”
Harry and Meghan, parents to Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, 4, urged the tech giants to do more than just comply with restrictions carrying fines of up to $49.5 million.
The couple have previously been vocal about their concerns around social media and youth mental health.
The Archewell Foundation helped co-ordinate a mental health awareness panel in 2023 where they called for tech platforms to toughen up on their content policies.
They also launched The Parents’ Network, a support group for family affected by social media harm.
Concluding their 537-word statement, Meghan and Harry added: “We hope this ban is only the start of a reckoning between society and the tech companies that built these platforms with growth as their first principle instead of safety.”
LANDMARKS LIGHT UP
The world watched Australia implement the landmark ban on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the social media ban for under 16s “one of the biggest social and cultural changes that our nation has faced”.
And, as with the Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902, the world was watching.
At sunset in Australia’s capital cities on Wednesday, green and gold light displays lit up capital city landmarks.
Sydney went with the Harbour Bridge, Melbourne with Flinders St Station, Brisbane with the Story Bridge.
These images would be beamed to places such as Denmark, where at least one government minister felt “super envious” about the ban.
And across Europe, where the EU parliament has voted for a social media ban for under 16s.
And in Malaysia, which plans to emulate the Australian law next year.
And even in the US, where Rahm Emanuel, touted as a future presidential candidate, spoke of the need for America “to step up its game and do the same”.
“We’ve studied and debated what to do long enough to know what’s right,” he said.
“Now we need the strength to say enough is enough and to act.”
Each New Year’s Eve, the Sydney Harbour Bridge lights up many hours before the London Eye explodes in colour and New York bows to its Times Square Ball Drop.
Sydney’s fireworks, with the assistance of every other Australian capital city, set the international mood for the year ahead.
Lighting landmarks for a new law is not a celebration, not in the way that Flinders St Station lit up for Taylor Swift and the mania of her many local disciples.
Nor is it blind jingoism.
It’s a statement, bold and simple.
Bathurst parent Emma Mason was a leading advocate of News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign.
In September, she told the UN that there were about 1.2 million 13-15-year-olds in Australia, and about 220 million 13-15-year-olds around the globe.
Her point? That the job was far from finished.
On Wednesday, Mason said: “It’s lighting up Australia on the world stage and standing as a beacon for all countries to follow suit.”
Fellow parent Mia Bannister said: “This is not about lighting up for legislation, this is about lighting up for our lost children and the generations of children we are going to save.”
Australia’s social media ban will not be perfect. But its introduction on Wednesday was a first step in an international movement.
Australia’s reform will almost certainly be enshrined as the catalyst for similar reforms in foreign lands.
The green and gold worldwide coverage, as NSW premier Chris Minns said, sent a message.
That Australia was prepared to lead was certainly part of that message.
That Australia stood up to social media giants, which ordinarily dismiss the concerns of sovereign governments with arrogant disdain, was another.
But mostly, the light displays served as an invitation.
Follow us, they extolled.
Wayne Holdsworth lost his son, Mac, after Mac was sextorted online.
On Wednesday, he hugged Albanese and spoke of a “historic day”.
“Mac will see the lights from Heaven,” he said.
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