You can officially stream the royals! Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip of Sweden launched their podcast Raiders of Likes on Wednesday, February 1. The Prince Couple’s foundation is behind the project that is catered toward helping parents understand social media platforms that their children use.
The royals, who are parents to nine-month-old son Prince Alexander, made their debut on the podcast’s first episode, during which Sofia candidly opened up about her experience with cyber abuse. “Early on I suffered enormous cyber abuse,” she revealed. “It was a bit like walking into a wall.”
“I know the difference from before I met Carl Philip and after our relationship became public,” the mom-of-one noted. After her romance with now-husband Carl Philip went public in 2010, the Swedish Princess admitted that she hadn’t learned to filter negative comments. “It hit me very hard,” she said. “But the experience has helped me understand what young people are exposed to daily.”
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Sofia received “so much hate” that she ended up shutting down her Facebook page, in addition to other social media platforms that she had created prior to her 2015 royal wedding. The Princess said, “It’s difficult to know what can you do? Who should you talk to?”
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Like his wife, Prince Carl Philip has received his fair share of negative comments on the Internet. After a flub during a live TV event, the dad-of-one said, “I got a huge amount of comments and some threats,” adding, “It can be hard to turn the volume down.”
Photo: Kate Gabor, The Royal Court, Sweden.
Despite Internet trolls, the couple has received well-wishes from strangers on the web. “After our wedding people made some very very nice comments, including some compliments about us as a team,” the Prince said. “That’s one reason why we stand here together to face this particular issue. We are a good team and we will make a difference.”
At an event to launch the podcast on Wednesday, the royal duo revealed that their past experience with cyber bullying served as a driving force to assist others and they hope that their foundation’s podcast will provide other parents with the knowledge and tools to make it easier to chat with their children about social media in addition to arousing curiosity to research the different platforms.
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"I think most of us find it difficult to imagine life without the Internet... But as with everything, there are both bright and dark sides of the net,” Carl said. “We ourselves have been exposed online. It has become a strong driving force to help others who are vulnerable. And that is precisely why we chose to work with this in our foundation."