On Wednesday night, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry joined an outdoor vigil with a group of about 75 grieving parents who have been helped by the Archewell Parent’s Network, a support group for families they launched in August 2024. The event marked the opening of The Lost Screen Memorial, an art installation of 50 light boxes featuring the photographs of children whose lives were cut short due to harms they encountered online.
“These are families that we’ve been working with for several years,” Meghan told reporters after two hours of speaking to the parents, some of whom were present during their 2023 event for World Mental Health Day. “I think it speaks to the larger global issue that has been present for a few years now, which is no matter how polarized the world is or what people may or may not agree on, one thing that we all agree on, is that our children should be safe. All of our children should be safe.”
When parents began to stream into the space as the sun set on Wednesday, many erupted in tears at the powerful sight of their children’s faces. “This is such a blessing,” said Joanne Bogards, who attended the event in honor of her son Mason. In 2019, he died at age 15 after trying the viral choking challenge. “Anytime you lose someone, just having something tactile to touch, something to say ‘they were here and they were important’ is such a gift.”
Emil Cohen for The Archewell Foundation
The vigil event at the Perch, a rooftop patio at the PENN 2 building adjoining Penn Station, is the beginning of a larger push by the Parents’ Network, to raise awareness of the issues their families have faced. The parents at the night’s event all wrote statements of remembrance for their children that the foundation compiled into a booklet and website, with the hopes of taking the installation to other cities.
For Harry, getting to know the Parents Network families has helped him understand that a change in our approach to tech and social media is necessary “Life is better off of social media. I say that as a parent, and I say that as someone who’s spoken to many of the kids here tonight who aren’t on social media because they’ve lost a brother or a sister to social media, but clearly not enough is not being done,” he said. “Some of the stories here are truly harrowing. Having done this for the last three years, you’ve been aware of it for the last five years. You think you’ve heard the worst of it until nights like this.”
Emil Cohen for The Archewell Foundation