Pope Francis calls on tech companies to protect children from porn

Pope Francis called on major tech companies Thursday to take action to protect children from viewing pornography.

The pope spoke at a Vatican conference with religious leaders and representatives of tech companies, telling the tech giants they must regulate content on their platforms more aggressively, The Associated Press reported. 

{mosads}Francis called out Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google and others to take responsibility to guard children from pornography that could affect their emotional and sexual development, according to the news wire.

“There is a need to ensure that investors and managers remain accountable, so that the good of minors and society is not sacrificed to profit,” he said according to the report.

The pope told the audience at the “Promoting Digital Child Dignity” conference that these companies should implement age verification technology and artificial intelligence to remove child porn from their platforms. 

“It is now clear that they cannot consider themselves completely unaccountable vis-a-vis the services they provide for their customers,” he continued. “So I make an urgent appeal to them to assume their responsibility toward minors, their integrity and their future.”

The pope’s comments urging more protections for children online is part of the Catholic Church’s reaction to its own child sexual abuse scandal involving clergy, according to the AP. 

One of the pope’s diplomats was sentenced to five years for watching child porn, and another Argentine bishop was put under investigation after porn was found on his phone, according to the AP.