London - Parents should not let children use computers in their bedrooms, the pope has said, while warning of the dangers of internet porn.
Pope Francis - who has 19 million Twitter followers - also revealed he believed computers to be “bad for the soul” as he launched into a lecture on the dangers of the internet age.
But he praised those parents who were concerned about their children’s exposure to pornographic material on the web, and only allowed the use of computers in common areas.
Speaking to journalists aboard the papal plane, the Pope said: “There is dirty content, pornography, semi-pornography...
'There are parents that are very worried and don’t let their children have computers in their bedroom but in a common place.”
That was a good thing, he said.
Francis went on to criticise those who are “too attached to their computer”, which he said is “bad for the soul” and amounted “a psychological illness”.
“It makes you a slave to your computer,” he added.
He said that many parents trying to have a family meal felt like children were “in another world” on their smartphones.
While acknowledging that the virtual world “is a reality that we cannot ignore”, he called on people to reconsider the amount of time they were spending staring at a screen.
“It is part of the progress of mankind,” he said. “But when it takes away from communal and family life, social life, sport, art and we remain attached to our computers, this is a psychological illness. This is certain.”
Despite his own large Twitter following, Francis appears to largely eschew modern technology - claiming recently that he does not use the internet and has not watched television since 1990.
Last year he urged young people not to waste time on smartphones and the web saying they “distract attention away from what is really important”.
Daily Mail