It's no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have strong feelings about the impact of technology on kids and young people.
Last year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex founded The Parents' Network to support families who have suffered from the harmful effects of social media and in April, while they were in NYC for the TIME100 Summit, the couple unveiled the Lost Screen Memorial, which is dedicated to young people lost too soon as a result of the harmful impact of social media.
So, when Harry made a surprise appearance on the October 29 episode of the Hasan Minhaj Doesn't Know podcast to talk candidly about, among other things, his home life with Meghan and their two children, Archie, 6 and Lilibet 4, it made sense that the conversation turned to the Sussexes' plans for handling technology and parenting.
Host Hasan Minhaj, who is father of two himself, was direct when it came to addressing the issue with the royal.
"I don't know if you guys have hit this crossroads yet, but what are you going to do when your kids ask for a cell phone?" he asked Harry during the interview. "Are you going to give them a phone? Have you talked to Meghan about this, cause I've talked to my wife about this."
"We talk about it a lot," Harry admitted (per People). "I think that because of what we know now, we will be way more cautious and hesitant of allowing our kids to have access to social media, but the problem is, so many parents don't have that awareness."
"Because in no logical, fair, ethical, moral world, should a parent have to consider this app, that sits on the phone—which by the way, having a phone for your kid is a really important thing—but the moment that you give them the gateway to everything else, kids will be kids," the royal continued.
Minhaj pressed the issue, mentioning his own daughter—who is seven—is getting older and asking Harry what he and Meghan plan to do when their own kids "hit that 8, 9, 10 place" and admitting, "I don't know what to do because I feel like I'm being opted in."
Harry acknowledged the pressure on parents to let their kids opt-in to technology and the very real benefits of kids having phones for family communication purposes. To balance those factors, the Duke of Sussex hinted that he and Meghan might opt to go "old-school" and get flip phones for their kids—if the social media and technology landscape hasn't changed for the better by then, that is.
"You're right, a lot of parents feel as if they don't have a choice, and a lot of kids don't have a choice. Because the reality is, if you're talking about just having a smart phone and an old-school phone are two very different things," Harry said. "If you want to be able to contact your kid, maybe we should just be giving them the old-school phone… but I think that our goal has to be to make sure that when our children get to that age, that the situation now isn't the situation then. There's no reason why it should be."
Harry also acknowledged the reality that keeping kids off smartphones and social media can, in and of itself, make them targets for bullying at school "because they're the only person not on the platform."
Minhaj asked Harry what he thinks the right age to allow kids to join social media is, declaring, "For me, it's 35."
For Harry, the answer isn't a specific age, but a developmental milestone.
"I think once your brain is properly formed," he said. "Once you are starting to learn who you are."
While Minhaj admitted that he wished his own kids would stay off social media until they're in college, Harry said that, while that would be a "sensible" rule formalize, realistically, it would be hard to regulate.
"Twenty-one is a sensible age, but the companies won't ever allow that," Harry said. "They will throw tens of millions of dollars to lobby against that."