In the UK, there was a big conversation about social media and young people. The conversation centered around the death of British teenager Molly Russell, who was only 14 years old when she died by suicide in 2017. After a lengthy investigation into the circumstances around her death, the inquest found that Molly had been exposed to thousands of damaging images and suicide-ideation on several social media platforms, including Instagram and Pinterest. The coroner said it outright: social media significantly contributed to Molly’s death. You can read more about the investigation here.
After the results of the inquest came in, Prince William decided to use his social media to speak about Molly’s death and online safety. This is a statement directly from William, as indicated by his digital signature, “W.”
No parent should ever have to endure what Ian Russell and his family have been through. They have been so incredibly brave. Online safety for our children and young people needs to be a prerequisite, not an afterthought. W
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) September 30, 2022
William is right that “Online safety for our children and young people needs to be a prerequisite, not an afterthought.” Social media is literally changing young people’s brains. There are social media addictions and unchecked campaigns of abuse, racism, misogyny. Social media threats become real-life threats all too easily. But… once again, is William the person to speak about this? It’s reminiscent of his “racism in football” campaign – he thinks he can dip his toe in, say some words and everything is solved. I’m surprised that William didn’t declare himself “bored” with online safety.
Just like William’s selective concerns about racism (in football), he’s awfully selective about what kinds of abusive social media he cares about. Still, to this very day, William has not said one word of condemnation for the racist and misogynistic hate campaigns – primarily on social media – against his sister-in-law and his niece and nephew. He has never publicly shown support for Harry, Meghan or their children. In fact, it would be interesting to know if some of the hate campaign was bought and paid for by Kensington Palace.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales and his wife Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales visit the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) Holyhead Lifeboat Station in Anglesey, north west Wales on September 27, 2022.,Image: 726451037, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: PAUL ELLIS / Avalon
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- Prince William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, visit St Thomas Church, a re-developed church in Swansea which supports people in the local area and across the City and County of Swansea. Tuesday 27 September 2022.,Image: 726477612, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph / Avalon
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- Prince William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, visit St Thomas Church, a re-developed church in Swansea which supports people in the local area and across the City and County of Swansea. Tuesday 27 September 2022.,Image: 726477686, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph / Avalon
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- King Charles, Camilla, Queen Consort, Prince William, Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince Harry and Meghan Duchess of Sussex on a walkabout to meet members of the public at Windsor Castle in Berkshire following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. Featuring: Prince Harry, Meghan Duchess of Sussex Where: Windsor, England, United Kingdom When: 10 Sep 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales visit tributes left at Sandringham Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, Kate, Prince William, Prince of Wales Where: Sandringham, Norfolk, United Kingdom When: 15 Sep 2022 Credit: Cover Images
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- Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales visit tributes left at Sandringham Featuring: Catherine, Princess of Wales, Kate, Prince William, Prince of Wales Where: Sandringham, Norfolk, United Kingdom When: 15 Sep 2022 Credit: Cover Images
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- Prince William And Catherine Princess Of Wales at the Army Training Centre (ATC) Pirbright in Guildford, Surrey, meeting troops from the Commonwealth who have been deployed to the UK to take part in the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Soldiers from Canada, Australia and New Zealand have gathered at Pirbright to rehearse their roles in the funeral on Monday. Featuring: Prince William And Catherine Princess Of Wales Where: Guildford, England, United Kingdom When: 16 Sep 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
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- Prince William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales visit the Army Training Centre (ATC) Pirbright in Guildford, Surrey, meeting troops from the Commonwealth who have been deployed to the UK to take part in the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Soldiers from Canada, Australia and New Zealand have gathered at Pirbright to rehearse their roles in the funeral on Monday. Featuring: Prince William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales Where: Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom When: 16 Sep 2022 Credit: Cover Images
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- The Prince and Princess of Wales meet volunteers and operational staff at Windsor Guildhall, Berkshire, who were involved in facilitating the Committal Service for Queen Elizabeth II at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on Monday and supporting the crowds that gathered to commemorate her passing. Featuring: Prince William and Catherine Princess of Wales Where: Berkshire, England, United Kingdom When: 22 Sep 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
I saw this headline in the news the day he tweeted it and all I could think about what KKKhate at Sarah Everard’s vigil. We know he doesn’t really care about this, all his actions point to that, he’s just trying to hitch his horse to the bandwagon and get some good PR. It’s despicable.
Agreed. William and Kate are great at hitching on a real life tragedy to make themselves look good. It’s sick.
William doesn’t care and neither does Kate, their inactions speak of that.
As per usual William has managed to repeat what Harry said a while back. It is all about optics.
Bless his heart.
For in depth review, look and listen to Prince Harry on Wired.
He did some research and seem quite knowledgeable about the subject matter.
PW gets a pass for me on this one: it is really important. I attended the funeral of a teenager this summer who could have been alive if help had come quicker.
It’s not that what he said was wrong. It’s that there’s never any follow up and he allows rampant abuse of his sister-in-law on his own sm. Not to mention continuing to brief against her and her husband to the tabloids. It’s “do as I say, not as I do”. Not just vulnerable teens are at risk from these hate campaigns.
I completely agree with you and everyone else on that. You are all right about PW being performative and never following through. And he is an effing bully. On the other hand, this was my saddest funeral this year and if PW saying this improves anything, today I feel I would take that.
I am very sorry about the loss of your teen friend, ML. I am sure that funeral must have been gutting. Hoping for better days ahead for you and the teen’s family.
He doesn’t get a cookie for making a bland statement no doubt written by an aide. He allowed, possibly even encouraged, the horrific racist abuse and threats Meghan and Archie received to the point where she was suicidal. He should practice what he preaches and remember that racism starts at home.
He can’t even be bothered to make sure that his own social media accounts are free of the racism and misogyny against his own sister in law. Post a comment about Kate wearing extensions or about Rose and it’s gone. But to this day there remain posts where underneath are so many horrific comments about Meghan, and claiming that Archie is a doll.
His staff could control this. He doesn’t care enough to do that basic step.
And that’s ignoring his total silence about his sister in law being attacked by social media, as led by the tabloids.
I double-checked online. Molly had both a mother & a father at the time of her death. William couldn’t bother to mention the mother’s name, just the father’s?
So, Ok, William, what next? How will you help this very big complex problem? Where should people go for help, what should parents do, siblings, friends, schools? Social media companies?
It would be surprise to lean that the hate campaign against the Sussexes was NOT funded in part by Kensington Palace.
I’m waiting for Bot Sentinel to one day reveal from where so many of those single purpose hate accounts got financial support — I’m sure C Bouzy knows, but he’s still out in cyber space hunting down rats.* There’s no way those people could afford to spend all day, every day creating and amplifying conspiracies and hate without some financial incentive.
*ETA — he’s also got excellent lawyers representing him, so that’s a significant factor, I’d guess.
I remember when he did spaces with the Sussex squad he said that whoever is funding this smear campaign must have a lot of money because this kind of coordinated smear campaign is very expensive.
Remember about a year ago, a lady on twitter exposed Jason Knauf for running hate accounts? I wonder why there was never an investigation into that. If a KP employee was running hate accounts, possibly with the knowledge of William, then it’s makes this statement even more hypocritical. I still think it’s weird that William continues to work with a man that called his sister-in-law a psychopath. This is how his staff speaks about so called “loved” members of the family which leads me to believe he absolutely knew about his staff making hate accounts and even encouraged it.
Still, let’s all give William a cookie for, let’s see, saying words. All this, while he hires, pays, and is represented by Jason Knauf, and keeps vile examples of online filth on his own social media accounts. Did no one in the BM write about how William can pretend to speak out against online bullying when his own online presence devotes protected space for these same bullies?
What does Will have to say about the online hate aimed at his own baby nephew and niece. Aimed at them partly because he refused to embrace, support and love his brother’s family. William is disgusting and so is his wife.
Spot on.
Charity begins at home. William needs to clean up his social media pages before talking about this issue.
Exactly. He never once condemned the social media campaign against his wife, or the press campaign (how could he, when it was coming from him, at least in part?) but his words on this issue now just sound empty and meaningless.
These statements that William issues to condemn something are so limp and laughable to me. So you think online abuse is bad? So what? Show us you GAF! What are you DOING about it???
I’m just here to say, well done on the pictures selected! A picture is worth a thousand words.
William was getting quite a dragging on his social media pages about the vile comments re: his nephew and SIL that are all over KP social media. I personally commented that he really needs to get a handle on his own social media corner first and then I’ll be more willing to listen to him.
The nerve! The NEEEERRRRVE of this HYPOCRITE!!
When KP puts BD wishes or whatever involving PH’s family and turns off comments or responds and says that the comments are inappropriate, he can put this statement out credibly.
Yeah I can’t take this seriously coming from him. At “best”, KP did nothing about the abuse Meghan faced/faces on their social media channels and at worst, actively encouraged it. Sure it’s great he acknowledges online abuse but maybe he can clean his own house first before going over to anyone else’s.
It’s easy for him to just say words. It’s not like anyone ever calls him out in the British media for failing to follow through. He says words. Get some PR and forgets about it in the next tweet.
William and Kate are both not only responsible for the racism Meghan and Harry received online . They both directly benefited for all the abuse Meghan went through they both had a hand in helping drive Meghan to suicide thoughts while she was pregnant with Archie . They allow hateful people to post racist and hateful comments about Meghan and Harry on their own personal social media accounts. And leave the comments there for all to see William is a hypocrite who just jumped on all is in the news right now .
1st social media message as POW? Right message, wrong messenger. Hey Will, why don’t you start by acknowledging the existence of your brother’s children?!? He could also show solidarity and commitment by not only eliminating hateful messages on his own social media platforms, but encouraging other family members to do the same. Smaller entities that the RF employ moderators to keep things civil and engaging on their platforms. They specifically state what’s acceptable behavior vs unacceptable. Easiest PR coup! A clear demonstration of stately and kingly behavior. Plus its not a marriage proposal so it shouldn’t take 10 years…
I had to think about why this bothered me. Is it hypocritical? Yes. Is it empty? Yes. But he never mentions that Molly’s family & friends set up a foundation to share mental health resources for young people. It would have cost William nothing to highlight that, but I guess resources for the online safety of children are an afterthought.
William & Kate remind me of this quote from The Great Gatsby: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
Wow. Fitzgerald nailed it. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, this perfectly describes W&K. How prescient F Scott was, how insightful.
Summed up perfectly – thanks for that quote.
William has zero credibility here. He has forever tainted his ability to speak credibly about bullying, online harassment, or racism. Unless he speaks out about the online abuse against the sussex family, he just can’t be believed. And that’s without even getting into who’s paying for the online abuse.
And this is why Harry is so done with William. William had the perfect opportunity to show support for Harry by constantly reminding folks of how damaging those hate campaigns against Harry’s family were. And he chose silence. Many feel as though these campaigns were orchestrated by KP and I choose to believe this as well. Being selective of what you condemn is not a good look and it causes others to point out the hypocrisy. William will forever live in Harry’s shadow because where Harry is authentic, William is an hypocrite. Long May Harry continue to be an authentic human being.
Who the hell is “Ian” and why is he the proxy for his family?
Umm…Ian is Molly’s father so of course he’s going to speak about the horrible tragedy of his daughter’s suicide.
He cares about online safety EXCEPT when it comes to his brother, sister-in-law, and their two children.
He should just sit there and eat his food.
As many other posters have said he’s right to put his weight behind this but, it would have more credibility if we saw actions accompanying the words. His own social media page is full of insulting posts about his brother, SIL and their two children. At the very least he could have the posts removed and if he was very serious block and report the posters. He (and his wife) could call out all those awful posters/bots who (in their name) clamour onto any charity who post pictures of Harry, Meghan or both after they’ve paid a visit. Until he does any or all of the above I’m firmly in the camp of William’s found another bandwagon to join, to make himself look good.
Prince William stands firmly against cyber bullying, online abuse, and rampant racism…unless it’s directed at his SIL and his nephew and niece, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Then he approves and signs off on it.
This is such an obvious statement from the Department of No-Shit-Sherlock.
As everyone else has noted, even this bland offering might have some credibility if he hadn’t allowed the Sussexes to be mauled on social media.
I guess Kate really meant it when she said she won’t be working more. She hasn’t done a thing since last week when they went to wales.
Hypocrite William and Kate . Definitely the wrong people to advocate for mental health. They totally closed their eyes on Meghan when she was being attacked and bombarded with lies by the cruel British media. William’s concern about online safety is just performative , insincere, and hollow. Even up to now it’s ok with him that Meghan, Harry and their children are dragged and bullied daily on social media. He and Kate even pay bots to do the harassment and bullying. His online safety advocacy is just an afterthought. Hollow and meaningless.