Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reveal 'next steps' as they give update on new project
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry released a powerful new report that outlines the Archewell Foundation's plans to keep children safe online.
The report comes after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's most recent visit to New York City to participate in the Archewell Foundation Parents’ Summit as part of Project Healthy Mind’s second annual World Mental Health Day Festival. Now, after speaking to many parents and hearing their concerns regarding their ability to look after their children's time spent online, the famous couple is working to address the issue to make for a safer and better online world.
The Archewell Foundation's Parents' Summit addressed the impact that social media can have on the mental health of young people. It allowed Harry and Meghan to provide a platform for parents to navigate mental health when it comes to the digital world. The Sussexes were hoping to raise awareness on how to make online usage a safer space for both parents and their children.
In the report, parent's raised their concerns of their children's time spent online, including their fears of bullying, access to harmful ideas or dangerous people, how too much time online could impact children's brain development, exposure to misinformation, among many others. These fears were raised from what parents have read, what they've heard from other parents, and what they've heard first-hand from their own children.
The Sussexes in the report outlined possible solutions to the ongoing issue including changes to how platforms are designed, creating better laws and regulations, special education and literacy efforts, and increased access to resources for both parents and young people. The report states: "Many parents in these sessions are specifically focused on holding social media companies accountable. The Archewell Foundation is exploring its role in advancing ideas in each of these categories going forward."
In the report, the foundation outlined real-world consequences parents have shared during their insight sessions. The Archewell Foundation conducted 15 sessions over a year-long span that included both young people and parents for a total of 118 participants to gather information. In these discussions, which previously brought Meghan to tears, many parents recounted stories of their children facing harm that they will never recover from ranging from "medical conditions and traumatic experiences to fatal outcomes."
During the Sussex's recent visit at the Mental Health summit, they touched on many important mental health topics including calling for social media platforms to adopt better content-moderation policies. The couple claimed that changes need to be made to addictive apps as they can be harmful to young people's mental health.
