Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have beefed up their security amid an increase in hateful racist messages directed toward the Duchess online.

Meghan was photographed after attending a panel discussion to mark International Women’s Day on Thursday in London, England. The Duchess showed off her bare legs – which proper English socialites frown upon.

The Royal Family is reportedly “on edge” over the racist online abuse directed at Prince Harry’s pregnant wife Meghan Duchess of Sussex.

“The Royal Family is forced to [monitor] their social media feeds 24/7 because of all of the racist hate that Meghan has been receiving. It has become a great problem,” a palace insider tells RadarOnline.com.

“It is a good thing that the royal family does not allow personal social media accounts. But because of this these racists are coming for them on their public social media, which is meant to give updates on the entire family.”

According to the source, “everyone is on edge right now and Meghan and Harry have also beefed up security on them specifically.”

“This was not something she ever even thought about when joining the royal family,” the source added.

Prince Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, will welcome their first child next month. Unlike American celebrities, who hide their newborns from the public, the royal couple will introduce their newborn to British subjects the day Meghan leaves the hospital.

Last week, the royal family issued a strict set of guidelines directed at anyone who is engaging with any of their social media channels.

Among the new set of rules, the guidelines state that “comments must not contain spam, be defamatory of any person, deceive others, be obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory or promote sexually explicit material or violence.”

In addition, the guidelines state that “comments must not promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.”

On Thursday, Queen Elizabeth II joined Instagram.com and posted her very first message at age 92. The message was an image of a royal letter from 1843.

Photos by John Rainford/WENN