Prince Harry has declared war on social media in a new interview.
On World Mental Health Day (October 10), the Duke of Sussex joined The Anxious Generation author and social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, for a conversation about smartphones, social media and their impact on the youth population.
The father-of-two joined the conversation about social media and mental health as part of Harry’s Archewell Foundation 2024 Insight Sessions—public conversations, highlights of which appear in a new Insight Report.
The report covers the impact of technology, with the voices of youth front and centre, and is also a reason why Prince Harry and Meghan travelled to Colombia.
In a video shared with Fortune Well, the Duke of Sussex began the conversation by stating: “In many cases, the smartphone is stealing young people’s childhood.”
He added: “It’s very easy for social media companies to point the finger at parents and say, ‘Well, you know, this is down to you. This is down to your parenting.’”
Prince Harry opened up about speaking with parents who caved and gave their young children smartphones.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said.
Jonathan Haidt had a conversation with Prince Harry about mental health and social media
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“They want them to have their phone at school in case of emergency, but once, like any kid, you have your phone, even if you’re told you’re not allowed to download that app, kids have a way of working around it.”
Haidt explained to Harry the premise of his book, that people born after 1995 (Gen Z, roughly) throughout the English-speaking world hit puberty with high rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide, which all rose sharply between 2010 and 2012.
This was no coincidence, according to Haidt, but instead was a direct result of the smartphone.
He told the duke: “Young people trade in their flip phones for smartphones, and now with a front-facing camera, high-speed internet, a million apps that are competing with each other to hook kids’ attention.”
Harry and Meghan were invited to Colombia by the Vice President to talk about social media and young people
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The social psychologist advocates for no smartphones before high school, no social media before 16, phone-free schools, and more unsupervised play and childhood independence.
Haidt added: “If you want to give your kid a phone, so if anything goes wrong they can call you, great. Give them a phone. Just don’t give them a supercomputer connected to everyone in the world… They don’t need that.
“The millennials had flip phones. They went through puberty with flip phones to call each other, text each other, meet up. It came out fine.”
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Harry launched an attack on social media and smartphones
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Haidt argued that Gen Z, on the other hand, “went through puberty with a supercomputer blocking out almost everything else in life.”
He continued: “Everything goes down: Much less time with friends, much less sunlight, very many fewer books, many fewer hobbies. You take almost everything out of childhood.
“You replace it with this and a bunch of million short videos. It’s not much of a childhood.”
