Harry and Meghan Urge Tech Firms to Protect Children Online
Prince Harry called on technology companies in Brussels to keep harmful material away from children, as he and Meghan appeared together publicly for the first time since criminal charges were filed against her father in Florida. Meghan did not speak at the event, which focused on online safety.
Prince Harry urged technology companies in Brussels to keep harmful material away from children, as he and Meghan made their first joint public appearance since criminal charges were filed against her father in Florida.
Harry spoke at a European Parliament event promoting online safety. Meghan attended but did not speak or take questions, amid global attention on her father’s case.
“Don’t put anything in front of our children that you wouldn’t put in front of your own children,” Harry said.
He argued that some technology executives restrict their own children’s access to social media because they understand its risks. “So why would you create something that you know is going to harm someone else’s child?” he asked.
The event was planned to include remarks from both Harry and Meghan. Those plans changed after US prosecutors charged Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, with possessing child sexual abuse material.
Markle denied the claims. Prosecutors presented evidence that they said suggested he appeared in photographs with alleged victims.
Florida police said Markle was arrested again on Tuesday after trying to cut off an electronic monitoring bracelet. He had been released from detention the previous Friday on the condition that he wear the device.
His son, Thomas Markle Jr., was also named as a person of interest in the investigation, according to the account of the case.
Meghan ended contact with her father in 2018. She said last month that she had seen a letter in 2019 warning about his conduct. The letter was written by his first wife, Roslyn Loveless.
The UK’s Metropolitan Police have opened an inquiry into why they did not act on concerns raised in the letter.
Meghan said she had kept her children, Archie and Lilibet, away from her father to protect them. In a statement on October 24, she said: “I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father, and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them.”
Her decision not to speak in Brussels drew criticism from some commentators, who questioned her public advocacy for children and her handling of the letter.
Biographer Andrew Lownie questioned what Meghan knew about her father’s conduct and why she had not spoken publicly about it earlier. “She’s campaigning on so many issues, but this is not one that she seems to have taken any interest in up ’til now,” he told The Times of London.
