By Alasdair Pal
SYDNEY, April 16 (Reuters) – Britain’s Prince Harry on Thursday praised Australia’s “epic” leadership on curbing harmful social media use for teens, as his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, spoke of a decade of online abuse.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are on a four-day trip to Australia, with engagements covering sport, mental health and veterans’ affairs.
Australia in December became the first country in the world to ban social media for children under 16, blocking them from platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, in legislation being copied around the world.
“Now we can sit here and debate the pros and cons of a ban – I’m not here to judge that. All I will say is from a responsibility and leadership standpoint – epic,” Harry said in a discussion with young people organised by Australian mental health organisation Batyr in Melbourne on Thursday.
Meghan told the same discussion she had been the target of relentless online bullying.
“For now, 10 years, every day for 10 years, I have been bullied and attacked. And I was the most trolled person in the entire world,” she said.
The couple stepped down as working members of the British royal family and moved to the U.S. in 2020, citing a desire to be financially independent and to escape what they characterised as media intrusion into their private lives.
They last visited Australia in 2018 while still working royals, announcing Meghan’s first pregnancy hours after arriving in Sydney.
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Harry and Meghan have received a mixed reception in Australia, where Britain’s King Charles is the head of state, though a sizeable minority supports becoming a republic.
The couple’s travel is being privately funded, though local media reported some policing costs associated with the visit would be paid by Australian taxpayers, sparking a protest petition signed by more than 45,000 people.
In contrast to their previous visit, the Sussexes are also undertaking what their office called “private meetings and special projects” while in Australia.
While Harry met military veterans on Wednesday, Meghan filmed an episode of cookery show MasterChef Australia, where she was a guest judge.
She is also co-hosting a luxury wellness retreat in Sydney over the weekend. Tickets for the event, which includes yoga, manifestation and sound healing, start from A$2,699 ($1,912) per person.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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