Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have joined four British families who travelled to the US demanding action on online safety following the deaths of their children
Social media giants have faced a wave of protest and demands from bereaved families and campaigners in New York City – which included action from Meghan and Harry.
A group of four British families who believe their children’s deaths were linked to internet harms travelled to the US to demand action on online safety. The parents protested with hundreds of others from the US and Canada outside the offices of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
At the same time, in separate action, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declared that “enough is not being done” to tackle social media harms. The couple revealed an installation in NYC memorialising children whose families believe their deaths were linked to harmful material online.
The Lost Screen Memorial is made from 50 smartphones displaying a photo of a child whose life was lost “due to the harms of social media”. “We want to make sure that things are changed so that… no more kids are lost to social media,” Prince Harry told BBC Breakfast.
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Ellen Roome, who believes her 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney died doing an online challenge, is among the British families fighting for change. She told the BBC: “It started off with just my mission about Jools but became a bigger picture.
“There are other children in the US, the UK, all over the world, that are being lost to social media. And so it’s for all those children and all the ones we haven’t lost yet that we can hopefully save.”
Also in NYC were the parents of Isaac Kenevan, who died aged 13 from taking part in a social media challenge and Maia Walsh’s family, who believe their 13-year-old also died from taking part in an online challenge. The families are part of a lawsuit suing TikTok for the alleged wrongful deaths of their kids.
Also attending the protest was Lorin LaFave, the mum of 14-year-old Breck Bednar who was groomed and lured to his killer’s flat through an online video gaming forum.
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