Technology reflects the values of those creating and controlling it. If profit becomes more important than protection, children suffer
A teenager recently told me, “Sir, I sleep with my phone under my pillow because I get anxious if I don’t check notifications.” The class laughed. But perhaps society should not be laughing anymore. Perhaps we should be asking why so many children today cannot disconnect from screens even for a few hours. Why are children becoming emotionally dependent on devices? Why are likes, streaks, views, and followers now shaping confidence and self-worth among adolescents?
Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas arrives at a deeply important moment for humanity. While reflecting on artificial intelligence, technology, and digital power, the Pope raises a much larger concern — whether humanity is slowly losing its soul while building an increasingly powerful digital civilization. Reading the document through the lens of child protection and parenting feels almost unsettling because many of the dangers the Pope warns about are already unfolding inside homes, schools, and communities around us.
The Pope uses the biblical image of the Tower of Babel — a civilization built on pride, control, power, and self-glorification. It is difficult not to connect that image to today’s online culture. Social media platforms thrive on visibility, validation, competition, and constant attention. Children are growing up in a world where popularity is measured publicly every single day. How many followers? How many views? How many reactions? Slowly, many children begin believing that their value depends on digital approval. One teenager once told me, “When my story gets fewer views, I feel nobody likes me.” That statement alone should deeply disturb parents, educators, and society.
Many parents proudly say, “My child is very smart with technology.” But perhaps the more important question is whether technology is shaping children in healthy ways. A child watches one fitness reel and suddenly the algorithm pushes body-shaming content. A teenager searches for relationship advice and quickly lands on pages promoting toxic masculinity, misogyny, pornography, gambling, or aggressive “alpha male” ideologies. A lonely adolescent seeking friendship online may unknowingly end up being groomed by strangers pretending to care for them.
Parents usually notice it gradually — less conversation at home, emotional withdrawal, late-night scrolling, anger when phones are removed, declining concentration, disturbed sleep, irritability, anxiety, or secretive behaviour. Sometimes children are not addicted to the phone itself. They are addicted to validation. Social media has transformed emotional insecurity into a profitable business model.
Pope Leo XIV warns against systems that reduce human beings into products and tools for profit. That warning speaks directly to today’s digital economy. The longer children remain online, the more money platforms make. Endless scrolling, autoplay, notifications, streaks, and algorithmic recommendations are not accidental features. They are carefully designed psychological mechanisms meant to keep users engaged for as long as possible. The Pope’s warning about “new forms of slavery” feels painfully relevant in this context. Today’s chains are often invisible. They appear in the form of digital addiction, gaming dependency, pornography exposure, online gambling, emotional manipulation, cyberbullying, sextortion, and compulsive scrolling.
Across India, cyberbullying, online blackmail, fake profiles, sextortion, and online sexual exploitation are rising rapidly. Children are being exposed to pornography long before they emotionally understand relationships, boundaries, respect, or consent. Adolescents sometimes share intimate content impulsively without understanding the lifelong emotional and legal consequences that may follow.
Artificial intelligence is now making this crisis even more frightening. AI-generated deepfake images, fake nude photographs, cloned voices, and manipulated videos are becoming increasingly accessible. The Pope’s statement that “technology is never neutral” becomes extremely important here. Technology reflects the values of those creating and controlling it. If profit becomes more important than protection, children suffer. If engagement becomes more important than ethics, families suffer. If speed becomes more important than wisdom, society suffers.
The encyclical also warns that communication systems shape the “collective imagination” of society. This is exactly what social media is doing to children today.
Another deeply worrying issue is misinformation. Children today are growing up in a world flooded with fake news, edited videos, manipulated narratives, AI-generated content, and conspiracy theories. Many adolescents genuinely struggle to distinguish truth from performance online. If children grow up unable to trust truth itself, society enters dangerous territory.
The digital crisis also affects vulnerable children disproportionately. Lonely children, emotionally neglected adolescents, migrant children, tribal children, children with disabilities, and children in institutional care are often more vulnerable online. Predators understand vulnerability very well. A child who feels unseen at home may desperately seek validation online. A lonely teenager may trust strangers faster.
Yet this conversation should not lead parents toward panic. It should lead them toward presence. Parents do not need to become cybersecurity experts overnight, but they must become emotionally available. The greatest online safety tool in a child’s life is still trust. Children who feel heard at home are more likely to report cyberbullying, grooming, blackmail, emotional distress, or online abuse.
Perhaps families need fewer surveillance apps and more meaningful conversations. Eat together without screens. Pray together. Talk without immediate judgement. Listen without interrogation. Know your child’s digital world without mocking it. Sometimes the goal is not to get answers immediately but simply to keep the door open.
Pope Leo XIV contrasts Babel with another biblical image — Jerusalem rebuilt together through shared responsibility, dignity, compassion, and community. That may be exactly what society now needs. Schools cannot remain silent. Faith communities cannot avoid these conversations. Technology companies cannot continue placing profit above child safety. Governments cannot remain merely reactive. And parents cannot outsource childhood entirely to screens.
Technology itself is not evil. The internet can educate, connect, inspire, and empower. But technology without ethics becomes dangerous. And childhood without protection becomes vulnerable.
Perhaps the biggest question Pope Leo XIV asks humanity is this: Are we building a digital world that protects human dignity — or one that slowly destroys it?
