Pope urges concrete, urgent
action to prevent abuse of minors in digital world
 |
| Pope Francis meeting participants in the international congress on "Promoting Digital Child Dignity"(Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis on Thursday addressed participants in an
international congress in the Vatican on the theme, “Promoting Digital Child
Dignity From Concept to Action, From 2017 to 2019”.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis on Thursday called on experts in science and technology,
the media, businesses, legislators, parents, religious leaders and others to
join hands to take concrete and urgent action to protect children from criminal
violence and harm in the digital world.
“We must ban from the face of the earth violence and
every form of abuse against children,” the Pope told some 80 participants in
the November 14-15 congress that is being jointly hosted by the Vatican’s
Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Child Dignity Alliance and the
United Arab Emirates Government.
“Let us look into their eyes: they are your sons and
daughters; we must love them as God’s masterpieces and children,” the Pope told
them, adding, “they have the right to a good life”. “We have the duty to
do everything possible to ensure that right.”
Among those attending the 2-day meeting are important
religious leaders from different communities, experts, academics, policymakers,
and technology industry leaders.
Blessing and bane of info technology
The pope expressed appreciation for the great opportunities
that the astonishing development of technology in the information and
communications media offers children, especially those in poverty and distant
from urban centres.
However, the challenge is to “ensure that minors have safe
access to these technologies so that “their healthy and serene development” is
ensured and they are protected from “unacceptable criminal violence or grave
harm to the integrity of their body and spirit”.
Tragically, the Pope noted, the use of digital technology to
organize, commission and engage in child abuse at a distance, is outstripping
the efforts and resources to combat such abuse.
“The spread of images of abuse or the exploitation of minors
is increasing exponentially, involving ever more serious and violent forms of
abuse and ever younger children.” The pope blamed the dramatic growth of
pornography in the digital world on the general loss of the sense of human
dignity, which, he said, is frequently linked to human trafficking.
What is even more disturbing, the Pope said, is the fact
that pornography is widely accessible to minors in the digital media, leading
them to grave addiction, violent behaviour and troubled emotional and sexual
relationships.
Concrete and urgent action
Drawing attention to the theme of their congress, “From
Concept to Action”, Pope Francis said, “it is not enough to understand; we must
act”. The moral condemnation of the harm inflicted on minors needs
urgently to be translated into concrete initiatives. “The longer we
wait,” he warned, “the more entrenched and insurmountable this evil
becomes.”
Balance between free expression and good of society
In this regard, he called for a fitting balance between the
legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and the interests of society, so
as to ensure that digital media are not used to perpetrate criminal activities
against minors.
He lamented that for the sake of advancing the development
of the internet and its many benefits, companies that provide services have
long considered themselves mere suppliers of technological platforms, neither
legally nor morally responsible for the way they are used.
Despite the enormous potential of digital technology, the
Pope said, the negative impact of its abuse in the area of human trafficking,
the planning of terrorist activities, the spread of hatred and extremism, the
manipulation of information and in the area child abuse, is equally
significant.
The Pope called for appropriate legislative and executive
measures to counter criminal activities that harm the life and dignity of
minors.
Corporate responsibility
He also appealed to large digital technology companies “to
assume their responsibility towards minors, their integrity and their
future."
One way of ensuring this is for internet service providers
to prevent minors from accessing pornographic sites by verifying their age. In
this regard, the Pope expressed alarm at studies showing the average age of
first access to pornography is currently eleven and tends to keep lowering,
which, he said, “is in no way acceptable”.
While encouraging the industry to cooperate with parents in
their educational responsibilities, the Holy Father also urged computer
engineers to use artificial intelligence technologies to identify and eliminate
illegal and harmful images from online circulation and help develop and create
a new ethics for our time.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét