2 min read
Meghan Markle traveled to Switzerland this weekend to attend the inauguration of a memorial dedicated to children who have lost their lives as a result of online abuse. The Duchess of Sussex joined World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, health ministers, and families affected by online harm at Geneva’s Place des Nations on Sunday for the unveiling of the Lost Screen Memorial. The event was timed for World Health Assembly Week, ahead of the opening of the 79th World Health Assembly.
The installation, hosted by the WHO and the Sussexes’s foundation Archewell Philanthropies, features 50 illuminated light boxes, each displaying the lock screen image of a child who died as a result of online violence or digital harm. Each screen shows the image a parent once saw every time they picked up their phone. A digital companion online allows visitors to read and hear each child’s story in the words of their parents.
FABRICE COFFRINI//Getty Images
The Duchess of Sussex delivers a speech at the opening of the “Lost Screen Memorial”, an art installation of giant illuminated smartphones representing 50 children who tragically lost their lives following harm linked to social media, displayed at Place des Nations, ahead of the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have long been outspoken on the issue of children’s safety online. Archewell Philanthropies created The Lost Screen Memorial in partnership with The Parents’ Network, which Meghan and Harry founded in 2024 as a community of bereaved families advocating for safer digital spaces for children. The memorial was first unveiled in New York City in April 2025 at an event that included a private vigil, where the royal couple were joined by approximately 50 affected families. During Sunday’s ceremony, Meghan paid tribute to the children featured in the installation and called for stronger global protections for children online.
Earlier this year, the Duke and Duchess also issued a rare statement following a landmark California ruling in which Meta and YouTube were found negligent in harming a young woman through addictive platform design features. “This verdict is a reckoning,” the couple said in a statement shared with T&C. “For too long, families have paid the price for platforms built with total disregard for the children they reach. We stand with every parent and young person who refused to be silenced. Today, the truth has been heard and precedent has been set.”
Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.