If social media’s so evil Harry, tell that to your 3.6m followers

HeY kids. So what’s the narrative on the Harry-Meghan axis? the theme, the zeitgeisty gist, the Major Issue that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are tackling next?

Hang on to your mouse mat, because the royal Batman and his feisty robinette are fighting the big one this week; the evils of the internet.

‘growing up in today’s world, social media is more addictive than drugs and alcohol,’ said Prince Harry on Wednesday, with his usual flair for talking urgent nonsense.

It was a particularly ridiculous thing to say, given that the Sussexes have just launched their own social media account on Instagram, which has already attracted 3.6 million followers and counting. ‘It’s not hypocritical,’ insisted their official spokesman, but many of us would beg to differ.

Increasingly, he seems to think there is one set of rules for him and his wife, while everyone else must abide by a completely different moral code. More stringent for a start. Let them eat Meghan’s special recipe austerity soup, they silently cry, while we live like well, royalty, amid the lush and plush of our Soho House set.

In the past, Harry has shot water buffalo, game birds and other hapless critters while campaigning for animal conservationism. Yet we have forgiven him for most of his youthful idiocies.

recently and more damningly, he encouraged youngsters to act on climate change and environmental issues, while he and Meghan fly around in private jets and helicopters should the opportunity arise.

ANDnow this. At a YMCA centre in West London promoting the Heads together mental health charity, the Prince claimed online games such as Fortnite were more addictive than booze or drugs.

It is true that the violent natures of such games are reprehensible, but his theory doesn’t even make sense. to an addict, a substance or a habit is either addictive or it is not.

You’d think someone who is always banging on about eradicating public stigma over mental health issues (What stigma, I always ask myself?) would know that, but there is never any joined up thinking where Prince Harry is concerned. He says it, therefore it is.

According to Harry this week, we are in an exciting time, but we are also in a mind-altering time.

We are in good times, but we are also in bad times. We are up and we are down. that is because we are a royal mass of contradictions,

aren’t we? ‘Kids need a human connection,’ he said, digging out his prompt sheet, which was surely handwritten in beautiful flowing calligraphy and scented with crushed macaroons.

For when Harry speaks these days, all I hear is the avocado mulch of Meghan’s impeccable socially liberal concerns, filtered through the obliging vassal of her husband.

the concern this week seems to be in urging parents to get children off social media where they might be bullied or have issues. Yet it didn’t seem to cross his princely mind that the place where they have most issues is on Instagram, where his new Sussexroyal account is attracting much attention.

Instagram is a photo-based platform associated with high levels of anxiety, depression and bullying in the young. It is infamous for fostering feelings of inadequacy and depression in millions of kids.

A survey by the royal Society for Public Health (ironic) found it had the worst scores of all social media platforms when it came to body image and anxiety, especially among girls.

In its way, it probably does as much damage as Fortnite, but who cares? Certainly not Prince H. For Instagram is now the go-to for lovely, exclusive pictures of Meghan and Harry doing their good deeds; a safe space (for them) which is free from criticism or wry judgments about their ocean- going insincerity.

WItHall this, plus his dutiful trips to a herbal wellness centre and his exhortations to millennials to find their true north star, Prince Harry is fast becoming the woke dope royal — and I rather wish he was not.

Behind the scenes he still leads a life of unthinkable luxury and entitlement. Yet in public he wants to sound good, he wants to do good and he wants to look good.

they may see themselves as caped crusaders, but people would love Harry and Meghan more if they set an example, rather than just kept telling us all what we should be doing and feeling and thinking.

the problem with Prince Harry is that he has become more Soho House than House of Windsor, and that is not good.