The Duke of Sussex has issued a new statement after a landmark ruling.
Prince Harry speaks about children’s safety online in a new statement (Image: Getty)
Prince Harry has issued a new statement on the safety of children online following a landmark ruling against Meta. A New Mexico judge fined the tech giant £485million ($567million) and likened its social media platforms to factories, saying that the psychological harm to children who use Facebook and Instagram can be seen as their pollution.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid prescribed steps to clean up what he described as Meta’s byproducts and ordered new safety measures, including a 90-hour monthly time limit for users under 18, AI chatbot restrictions, and mandatory warnings on the platforms. The Duke of Sussex, who has long campaigned for children’s safety online, issued a new statement saying the latest ruling marks a “turning point” in holding tech companies accountable for the impact their platforms have on young users. In a statement shared to People magazine, Harry said: “For years we’ve argued that big tech’s harm to children was a choice, not some inevitable side effect. This is not an accident. It is not a glitch,” Harry, 41, said.
The Duke of Sussex has long campaigned for children’s safety online (Image: Getty)
“What we’ve seen in the last 24 hours is what accountability looks like. This is what happens when the law finally catches up to decisions made in boardrooms, product meetings, and algorithm reviews — decisions that put social media engagement ahead of safety,” he continued.
“The bar has moved, and every platform still choosing engagement over safety should take notice. Change cannot wait another day.”
Jurors had previously ordered that Meta be fined 375 million dollars (£278 million) after finding that it knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
A New Mexico court has now ruled that the firm must pay the additional sum to address the suffering caused to children by its sites.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid said most of the money – 420 million dollars (£312 million) – should be used for treatment services, with the remainder directed towards awareness and prevention, as well as screening.
Meanwhile, Meta has vowed to appeal against the New Mexico ruling.
The company said in a statement: “We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content.
“We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”
The total penalties faced by Meta – 942 million dollars (£698 million) – is only a fraction of its annual profit, which amounted to around 60 billion dollars (£44.5 billion) in 2025.