Meghan Markle has been featuring her children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, more in social media posts in recent months, but has made the conscious decision not to show their faces.
Since the Duchess of Sussex returned to Instagram in January 2025, around 25 per cent of her 101 posts either feature or mention her young children.
However, Princess Lilibet’s face has not been shown to the public since her first birthday portrait in 2022, and Archie’s face was last seen in Harry and Meghan’s 2022 Netflix documentary.
Some royal fans now think they’ve worked out why Meghan and Harry have stopped showing their kids’ faces, pointing out a rarely-known California law which aims to protect the children of public figures.
“It turns out that California has a law, the ‘Child Vlogger Bill of Rights’, that requires parents to put money into a trust fund for kids shown on social media for monetisation purposes,” one royal watcher shared on Reddit.
“However, there is a loophole that if you don’t show the kids’ faces, you are exempt from this law.
“It’s just another possible reason the children’s faces are always hidden.”
Under the Child Content Creator Rights Act, which took effect in California last year, if a child is involved in at least 30 per cent of a content creator’s paid posts per month, 65 per cent of their income must be put into a trust account for when the child turns 18.
The new laws don’t specify whether the childrens’ faces need to be shown to require compensation, but state that content must include “the likeness, name, or photograph of the minor”.
Last month, Meghan delivered a speech about protecting children online at the Lost Screen Memorial in Geneva, Switzerland, which commemorates children who have lost their lives due to online bullying and digital harm.
In her address, the 44-year-old urged the crowd to “speak up” against harmful online behaviour and “demand better from the platforms shaping our children’s lives”.
“Be an example in your own social media use of how to be intentional in every like, comment, post, and share. Hold your community to the same standard,” she said.
“Support laws and leaders committed to child safety by design, transparency and accountability online. Write to your elected representatives. Ask what they are doing to protect children in digital spaces.”
In December, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke out about Australia’s Online Safety Amendment which prohibits children under 16 from accessing social media.
“Australia takes bold action to protect kids online. But it shouldn’t have come to this,” they said through their Archewell Foundation.
“This bold, decisive action to protect children at a critical moment in their development sends a strong signal that a child’s mind is not a commodity to be exploited.
“It buys young people valuable time back in their childhoods, but it doesn’t fix the fundamental issue we all still face with social media platforms.”
They added: “Here’s the truth: the ban is an effective measure to stop imminent harm, but ultimately only works as a band aid that does not address tech’s broken design and exploitive business incentives, requiring us to protect young people in the first place.”
Skynews.com.au has reached out to the Sussexes for comment.
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