Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have officially launched the Parents
Network in coordination with their philanthropic organization,
R12 Foundation. The organization says that it aims to,
quote, provide crucial support to parents whose children have suffered
from the harmful effects of social media.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke about the program
on CBS News Sunday Morning.
Our kids are young. They're three and five.
They're amazing,
but all you want to do as parents is protect
them.
And so as we can see what's happening in the
online space,
we know that there's a lot of work to be
done there and we're just happy to be able to
be a part of.
Well, you change for good When your children ask for
help,
someone you know is, is there to to give it,
you know, if not to,
if you know how to help.
Thank you. At this point,
we've got to the stage where almost every parent needs
to be a first responder,
and even the best first responders in the world wouldn't
be able to tell the signs of possible suicide.
That is the terrifying piece of this.
So Aaron Hill joins me now with more on this.
She's a People magazine, or she is People magazine senior
royal news editor.
Thanks for joining us this early.
Tell us more about the inspiration and the mission behind
the Parents Network project.
Yeah. So this is really
Harry and Meghan want to create a community for families
of children who have been harmed by social media use.
And this is 2 years in the making.
They've had a two year pilot program working very intimately
with parents who have
suffered the imaginable when it comes to their children's online,
online social media use. And so they've put together this
network where parents can connect with other parents who are
going through the same thing.
And so there's monthly expert LED sessions.
There's this virtual community where you can get a lot
of resources and it's available to parents in the USUK
and Canada.
So, you know, Meghan Markle had a bit of an
emotional response when she was speaking to CBS Sunday Morning's
host Jane Pauley about her own mental health struggle.
She's she's spoken openly about just,
you know, how sort of close she came to the
edge when dealing with the pressure being in the media
spotlight when she joined the royal family.
Why is this issue so close to their,
to their hearts?
Yes, exactly. As you said,
you know, Megan has spoken out about
something that she experienced when
she was working member of the royal family,
a lot of daily onslaught from from social media to
the press in the UK and how it drove her
to the brink of suicidal thoughts.
And that was remained one of the reasons why they
left their their roles and came to the US.
And so this, this is very important to them,
this they still receive
social media threats. We spoke to those within their inner
circle this,
this week for our issue.
And they said that it's,
it's so vital for them,
especially to Harry to protect his family,
to protect his young children
from these threats that they're still actively receiving.
And so it's Megan said herself to speak openly about
this.
If she can help one person,
that's all that matters. And
this is definitely a a key reason that they wanted
to create
this network. Sounds, it sounds fantastic.
Sounds like something every parent could use.
Aaron Hall, thank you very much.