Meghan announces surprise weekend visit to Switzerland as she calls for stronger online curbs protecting children

Meghan Markle has announced a surprise visit to Geneva, Switzerland, this weekend, calling for stronger online protections for children.

The Duchess of Sussex, 44, will attend the unveiling of the Missing Screen Memorial in Switzerland on Sunday, dedicated to people who have died after being digitally damaged.

He was joined by Dr. Dr., director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), who traveled with Prince Harry on a royal-like tour to Jordan in February. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will also accompany.

Guests, including global health leaders, ministers and families, will see an installation of 50 illuminated light boxes, each displaying a mobile phone lock screen image of a child killed by online violence and digital harm.

Digital harm, also known as online harm, refers to any type of harmful content online.

On Friday, Meghan’s office said: ‘During the ceremony, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will pay tribute to the children commemorated in the installation and underline the urgent need for stronger global protections for children online.’

This comes after Prince Harry and Meghan announced on Friday that they plan to make a film adaptation of a best-selling memoir about a British military mission in Afghanistan with Netflix, with whom they have partnered since 2020.

No Way Out: The Searing True Story of Men Under Siege, written by British Major Adam Jowett, describes his work leading a unit of paratroopers and Royal Irish Rangers in July 2006.

Meghan visits Jordan with World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

WHO and Archewell Philanthropies, the charity of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are hosting the event in Switzerland ahead of the 79th World Health Assembly.

It is also run in partnership with The Parents’ Network, a community of bereaved families advocating for safer online spaces for children and young people.

The foundation added that the commemoration ceremony, which will last until May 22, “aims to highlight the measurable and preventable harms of online violence against children.”

This includes: ‘cyberbullying, grooming, blackmail, exposure to self-harming content and unsafe emerging technologies without adequate safeguards’.

Geneva mayor Alfonso Gomez Cruz will be among those attending the tribute, as well as online child safety advocate Amy Neville, whose son Alexander is among the children featured in the exhibition. Ms Neville will also speak at the event.

The Missing Screen Memorial adds to Harry’s previous comments at the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative, in which he called for immediate action to protect children online. During his speech, he showed his own lock screen with a photo of his two children.

Harry and Meghan, who left the Royal Family to move to the United States, shared a glimpse into their life at Frogmore Cottage before moving to Montecito, California, last week.

Celebrating their son Prince Archie’s seventh birthday, Meghan posted two unseen photos, including a rare baby photo of the young royal living at the country home in Windsor.

Harry and Meghan, 41, moved into the four-bedroom property in Windsor shortly before Archie was born on May 6, 2019.

Meghan’s photo showed the then-newborn sleeping peacefully on Harry’s chest as the prince looked lovingly at his son.

Archie celebrated his birthday 3,000 miles away from the Royal Family, who have only met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son a handful of times.

When Prince Harry and Meghan made the unprecedented decision to give up their royal roles in 2020, it was unknown what the future of their son Archie, who did not have a title at the time, would look like.

But according to royal biographer Omid Scobie, it was actually Archie who gave the Duke and Duchess of Sussex the courage to leave the Royal Family.

The young royal, who was only eight months old at the time, motivated her parents to ‘stand up for what is right for them, no matter what the consequences’.