Digital

France becomes first European country to ban social media for minors under 15 #Catholic The French Parliament on July 21 definitively passed a law banning children under the age of 15 from accessing social media, making France the first country in Europe to enshrine such a restriction in its national legislation. The measure is the culmination of a campaign led by President Emmanuel Macron since 2017 in which he has denounced anonymity on social media as a gateway to online abuse.The law, presented as a child protection measure against all the risks associated with the use of social media, from addiction to bullying and abuse, has also reignited concerns about increased government oversight of internet users, as the age verification requirements — intended to target minors — entail identity checks for everyone.“France is leading the way in Europe by becoming the first country to establish a ‘digital age of majority’ to better protect our children online,” said Anne Le Hénanff, minister delegate for digital sovereignty, following the vote.The Senate adopted the compromise bill by a vote of 243 to 2, and the National Assembly followed suit a few hours later, paving the way for Macron to sign the measure into law, subject to review by the Constitutional Council.The bill’s central provision bars minors under 15 from accessing “an online social network service.” Leading platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are expected to fall under the ban, though lawmakers left the precise scope undefined. Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias, along with open-source software and educational platforms, are explicitly exempted. Responsibility for verifying users’ ages falls to the platforms themselves, which must offer at least two different verification methods.Enforcement will unfold in two different stages. New accounts will be subject to age checks starting Sept. 1, while existing accounts belonging to minors under 15 will have until Jan. 1, 2027, before they are suspended.The law also extends France’s existing smartphone ban in middle schools to high schools starting in the 2026 school year.France’s move makes it the first EU member state to enact a blanket social-network age floor, though it follows Australia, which imposed a minimum age of 16 in December 2025. Officials say a coalition of roughly 15 European countries is interested in adopting a similar standard. Le Hénanff confirmed Greece is ready to transpose the French model, with Spain expected to follow in the fall. The European Commission is separately developing its own EU-wide age-verification tool, expected to be available to member states by the end of the year.Under the model France has adopted — built around the “double anonymity” principle found in the EU’s Digital Services Act, the bloc’s main online-platform law — a trusted third party would verify a user’s age from an ID document or bank card and issue an anonymous token confirming only whether the user is over or under 15, without revealing the user’s identity or which platform requested the check. Le Hénanff has described this as a way of avoiding data collection by the platforms themselves. Critics, however, argue the system’s implementation is far less safe than officials suggest.The underlying concern is that this child-protection measure could evolve into a broader mechanism for verifying and tracking the identity of internet users generally. Opponents of the law claim that the mechanics of age verification remain largely undefined barely a month before the law takes effect.They also point to recent history of large-scale personal data breaches across government agencies as a reason for caution about centralizing age- or identity-verification data.La Quadrature du Net, France’s leading digital-rights advocacy group, and the Conseil national du numérique, an official government advisory body, both warned that the law amounted to what they termed “generalized surveillance disguised as child protection.”The European Center for Law and Justice, along the same lines, argues that France and the European Commission are each independently pushing to generalize identity checks across the EU under the banner of online safety policy.Several digital-rights groups are reportedly preparing separate challenges before France’s Council of State and the EU’s Court of Justice, arguing the law violates free-expression and proportionality principles.For now, all eyes are on Australia, the only country with a comparable ban already in force. An early analysis of survey data from roughly 400 young social media users, published in The BMJ on June 24, found little evidence that Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Act had produced any substantial early drop in social media use among adolescents in its first three months — although researchers cautioned that legislative effects can take time to appear and called for longer-term evaluation.A companion analysis reported that roughly 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still using restricted platforms, the most common workarounds being fake accounts and private browsers.
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France becomes first European country to ban social media for minors under 15 #Catholic The French Parliament on July 21 definitively passed a law banning children under the age of 15 from accessing social media, making France the first country in Europe to enshrine such a restriction in its national legislation. The measure is the culmination of a campaign led by President Emmanuel Macron since 2017 in which he has denounced anonymity on social media as a gateway to online abuse.The law, presented as a child protection measure against all the risks associated with the use of social media, from addiction to bullying and abuse, has also reignited concerns about increased government oversight of internet users, as the age verification requirements — intended to target minors — entail identity checks for everyone.“France is leading the way in Europe by becoming the first country to establish a ‘digital age of majority’ to better protect our children online,” said Anne Le Hénanff, minister delegate for digital sovereignty, following the vote.The Senate adopted the compromise bill by a vote of 243 to 2, and the National Assembly followed suit a few hours later, paving the way for Macron to sign the measure into law, subject to review by the Constitutional Council.The bill’s central provision bars minors under 15 from accessing “an online social network service.” Leading platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are expected to fall under the ban, though lawmakers left the precise scope undefined. Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias, along with open-source software and educational platforms, are explicitly exempted. Responsibility for verifying users’ ages falls to the platforms themselves, which must offer at least two different verification methods.Enforcement will unfold in two different stages. New accounts will be subject to age checks starting Sept. 1, while existing accounts belonging to minors under 15 will have until Jan. 1, 2027, before they are suspended.The law also extends France’s existing smartphone ban in middle schools to high schools starting in the 2026 school year.France’s move makes it the first EU member state to enact a blanket social-network age floor, though it follows Australia, which imposed a minimum age of 16 in December 2025. Officials say a coalition of roughly 15 European countries is interested in adopting a similar standard. Le Hénanff confirmed Greece is ready to transpose the French model, with Spain expected to follow in the fall. The European Commission is separately developing its own EU-wide age-verification tool, expected to be available to member states by the end of the year.Under the model France has adopted — built around the “double anonymity” principle found in the EU’s Digital Services Act, the bloc’s main online-platform law — a trusted third party would verify a user’s age from an ID document or bank card and issue an anonymous token confirming only whether the user is over or under 15, without revealing the user’s identity or which platform requested the check. Le Hénanff has described this as a way of avoiding data collection by the platforms themselves. Critics, however, argue the system’s implementation is far less safe than officials suggest.The underlying concern is that this child-protection measure could evolve into a broader mechanism for verifying and tracking the identity of internet users generally. Opponents of the law claim that the mechanics of age verification remain largely undefined barely a month before the law takes effect.They also point to recent history of large-scale personal data breaches across government agencies as a reason for caution about centralizing age- or identity-verification data.La Quadrature du Net, France’s leading digital-rights advocacy group, and the Conseil national du numérique, an official government advisory body, both warned that the law amounted to what they termed “generalized surveillance disguised as child protection.”The European Center for Law and Justice, along the same lines, argues that France and the European Commission are each independently pushing to generalize identity checks across the EU under the banner of online safety policy.Several digital-rights groups are reportedly preparing separate challenges before France’s Council of State and the EU’s Court of Justice, arguing the law violates free-expression and proportionality principles.For now, all eyes are on Australia, the only country with a comparable ban already in force. An early analysis of survey data from roughly 400 young social media users, published in The BMJ on June 24, found little evidence that Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Act had produced any substantial early drop in social media use among adolescents in its first three months — although researchers cautioned that legislative effects can take time to appear and called for longer-term evaluation.A companion analysis reported that roughly 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still using restricted platforms, the most common workarounds being fake accounts and private browsers.

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“France is leading the way in Europe by becoming the first country to establish a ‘digital age of majority,’” said the country’s minister delegate for digital sovereignty.

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Catholic youth chaplains in Nigeria urged to report abuse allegations to Church, civil authorities #Catholic ABUJA, Nigeria — The national director of the Pastoral Affairs Department of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria has urged youth chaplains across the country to promptly report allegations of abuse involving minors to both Church and civil authorities, emphasizing that safeguarding is an essential responsibility of youth ministry.Speaking to ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on the sidelines of a June 25 seminar for provincial youth chaplains, Father Augustine Olusegun Fasiku said the Churchʼs commitment to young people requires creating and maintaining safe environments.“The Church entrusts young people to chaplains not merely to organize programs or celebrate Masses. She entrusts them with the lives, safety, dignity, and spiritual growth of those young people, and so you must report abuse of minors anytime it occurs under your watch,” Fasiku said.Describing youth chaplains as both “pastor and protector,” he said every retreat, counseling session, youth gathering, and online interaction should reflect accountability, vigilance, and care.Fasiku stressed that chaplains have moral, pastoral, canonical, and legal obligations to report allegations of abuse immediately rather than attempt to address them privately.“The first responsibility is to receive the report seriously and compassionately,” he said. “However, the chaplain must remember that he is not an investigator. His role is not to interrogate witnesses or determine guilt. He must promptly report the allegation to the appropriate diocesan safeguarding office or Church authority while ensuring that relevant civil authorities are informed according to legal requirements.”The Nigerian Catholic priest cautioned against efforts to conceal abuse in order to avoid scandal, noting that such actions can expose both individuals and Church institutions to legal consequences.“There should be no confusion today; Pope Francis abolished the pontifical secret in cases involving sexual abuse of minors. Internal Church procedures cannot be used to prevent cooperation with civil authorities,” he said.Fasiku underscored that canonical procedures and civil legal processes operate alongside one another.“In Nigeria, withholding information in order to avoid scandal can itself create serious legal consequences. The welfare of the child must always take precedence over institutional reputation,” he said.Referring to Nigeria’s Child Rights Act of 2003 and the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act of 2015, he said Church personnel who commit offenses against minors are accountable under both ecclesiastical and civil law.“What this means is that a priest, chaplain, teacher, or Church worker who commits an offense against a minor is not only answerable to ecclesiastical authorities but also accountable under Nigerian law,” he explained.Fasiku also highlighted provisions of Church law governing safeguarding, citing Canon 1752, which states that the salvation of souls is the supreme law of the Church, and Canon 1398, which criminalizes sexual offenses against minors and vulnerable persons, including grooming and the possession of abusive materials.He further pointed to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Vos Estis Lux Mundi (You Are the Light of the World) saying that it establishes mandatory reporting obligations within the Church and mechanisms for holding Church leaders accountable in cases of negligence or cover-ups.Addressing the dynamics of youth ministry, Fasiku warned that abuse often begins with the misuse of authority and trust.“Young people frequently see priests as representatives of God. If a chaplain abuses that authority by manipulating a young person’s conscience or presenting personal desires as God’s will, the consequences can be devastating,” he said.He noted that many young people seek guidance from chaplains during periods of grief, family difficulties, identity struggles, and other personal crises, circumstances that can create significant imbalances of power.“Parents entrust their children to the Church because they believe the Church will protect them,” he said. “Young people themselves share personal struggles because they trust their chaplain.”According to the priest, that trust places a fiduciary obligation on ministers to act solely in the best interests of those entrusted to their care.He added that no romantic, financial, or exploitative relationship between a chaplain and a young person can ever be justified, because responsibility for maintaining appropriate boundaries rests with the adult minister.He also outlined practical safeguarding measures, encouraging chaplains to observe the “Two-Adult Rule” and ensure meetings with minors take place in visible and transparent settings.“Counseling sessions should not occur in isolated private locations. Physical contact should always remain appropriate, public, and nonexclusive,” he said.He further cautioned against favoritism and emotional dependency, warning that special privileges or excessive personal attention to individual youths can foster unhealthy attachments and resemble grooming behavior.Fasiku also addressed the challenges posed by digital communication, urging chaplains to avoid secretive online interactions with minors.“Private messaging late at night, disappearing messages, secret chats, or communications that cannot be monitored create unnecessary risks and should be avoided,” he said.He encouraged the use of official and accountable communication channels and recommended involving parents or other responsible adults whenever appropriate.On care for survivors, Fasiku emphasized that victims of abuse must receive compassionate accompaniment and access to spiritual, psychological, emotional, and medical support.“The Church’s responsibility does not end with receiving a report; accompaniment and healing is an essential component of pastoral care,” he said.He added that accused ministers should have no contact with victims or their families during investigations and that independent pastoral caregivers should be assigned to support those affected while safeguarding the integrity of the process.Fasiku urged youth chaplains to view safeguarding not as an administrative requirement but as a concrete expression of the Gospel.“The future of the Church depends greatly on the trust young people place in her; that trust can only flourish when young people know they are safe,” he said.The priest emphasized: “When we protect the vulnerable, we honor Christ. When we create safe environments, we strengthen the Church. And when we place the dignity and welfare of young people at the center of our ministry, we fulfill both our pastoral mission and our legal obligation.”This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
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Catholic youth chaplains in Nigeria urged to report abuse allegations to Church, civil authorities #Catholic ABUJA, Nigeria — The national director of the Pastoral Affairs Department of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria has urged youth chaplains across the country to promptly report allegations of abuse involving minors to both Church and civil authorities, emphasizing that safeguarding is an essential responsibility of youth ministry.Speaking to ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on the sidelines of a June 25 seminar for provincial youth chaplains, Father Augustine Olusegun Fasiku said the Churchʼs commitment to young people requires creating and maintaining safe environments.“The Church entrusts young people to chaplains not merely to organize programs or celebrate Masses. She entrusts them with the lives, safety, dignity, and spiritual growth of those young people, and so you must report abuse of minors anytime it occurs under your watch,” Fasiku said.Describing youth chaplains as both “pastor and protector,” he said every retreat, counseling session, youth gathering, and online interaction should reflect accountability, vigilance, and care.Fasiku stressed that chaplains have moral, pastoral, canonical, and legal obligations to report allegations of abuse immediately rather than attempt to address them privately.“The first responsibility is to receive the report seriously and compassionately,” he said. “However, the chaplain must remember that he is not an investigator. His role is not to interrogate witnesses or determine guilt. He must promptly report the allegation to the appropriate diocesan safeguarding office or Church authority while ensuring that relevant civil authorities are informed according to legal requirements.”The Nigerian Catholic priest cautioned against efforts to conceal abuse in order to avoid scandal, noting that such actions can expose both individuals and Church institutions to legal consequences.“There should be no confusion today; Pope Francis abolished the pontifical secret in cases involving sexual abuse of minors. Internal Church procedures cannot be used to prevent cooperation with civil authorities,” he said.Fasiku underscored that canonical procedures and civil legal processes operate alongside one another.“In Nigeria, withholding information in order to avoid scandal can itself create serious legal consequences. The welfare of the child must always take precedence over institutional reputation,” he said.Referring to Nigeria’s Child Rights Act of 2003 and the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act of 2015, he said Church personnel who commit offenses against minors are accountable under both ecclesiastical and civil law.“What this means is that a priest, chaplain, teacher, or Church worker who commits an offense against a minor is not only answerable to ecclesiastical authorities but also accountable under Nigerian law,” he explained.Fasiku also highlighted provisions of Church law governing safeguarding, citing Canon 1752, which states that the salvation of souls is the supreme law of the Church, and Canon 1398, which criminalizes sexual offenses against minors and vulnerable persons, including grooming and the possession of abusive materials.He further pointed to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Vos Estis Lux Mundi (You Are the Light of the World) saying that it establishes mandatory reporting obligations within the Church and mechanisms for holding Church leaders accountable in cases of negligence or cover-ups.Addressing the dynamics of youth ministry, Fasiku warned that abuse often begins with the misuse of authority and trust.“Young people frequently see priests as representatives of God. If a chaplain abuses that authority by manipulating a young person’s conscience or presenting personal desires as God’s will, the consequences can be devastating,” he said.He noted that many young people seek guidance from chaplains during periods of grief, family difficulties, identity struggles, and other personal crises, circumstances that can create significant imbalances of power.“Parents entrust their children to the Church because they believe the Church will protect them,” he said. “Young people themselves share personal struggles because they trust their chaplain.”According to the priest, that trust places a fiduciary obligation on ministers to act solely in the best interests of those entrusted to their care.He added that no romantic, financial, or exploitative relationship between a chaplain and a young person can ever be justified, because responsibility for maintaining appropriate boundaries rests with the adult minister.He also outlined practical safeguarding measures, encouraging chaplains to observe the “Two-Adult Rule” and ensure meetings with minors take place in visible and transparent settings.“Counseling sessions should not occur in isolated private locations. Physical contact should always remain appropriate, public, and nonexclusive,” he said.He further cautioned against favoritism and emotional dependency, warning that special privileges or excessive personal attention to individual youths can foster unhealthy attachments and resemble grooming behavior.Fasiku also addressed the challenges posed by digital communication, urging chaplains to avoid secretive online interactions with minors.“Private messaging late at night, disappearing messages, secret chats, or communications that cannot be monitored create unnecessary risks and should be avoided,” he said.He encouraged the use of official and accountable communication channels and recommended involving parents or other responsible adults whenever appropriate.On care for survivors, Fasiku emphasized that victims of abuse must receive compassionate accompaniment and access to spiritual, psychological, emotional, and medical support.“The Church’s responsibility does not end with receiving a report; accompaniment and healing is an essential component of pastoral care,” he said.He added that accused ministers should have no contact with victims or their families during investigations and that independent pastoral caregivers should be assigned to support those affected while safeguarding the integrity of the process.Fasiku urged youth chaplains to view safeguarding not as an administrative requirement but as a concrete expression of the Gospel.“The future of the Church depends greatly on the trust young people place in her; that trust can only flourish when young people know they are safe,” he said.The priest emphasized: “When we protect the vulnerable, we honor Christ. When we create safe environments, we strengthen the Church. And when we place the dignity and welfare of young people at the center of our ministry, we fulfill both our pastoral mission and our legal obligation.”This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

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The national director of the Pastoral Affairs Department of Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) said the Church’s commitment to young people requires creating and maintaining safe environments.

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Meet Fio: the Catholic alternative to Spotify aiming to bring faith to your playlists #Catholic For many Catholics, faith formation often competes with busy schedules and endless digital distractions. Fio, a Catholic audio streaming platform, hopes to change that by putting faith-filled content at listeners’ fingertips. Dubbed “the Catholic alternative to Spotify,” the platform offers a growing library of podcasts, audiobooks, and music, giving users a way to stay connected to their faith wherever life takes them.Currently, Fio is being used in over 100 countries, is host to over 100,000 hours of Catholic content, and has over 1,000 Catholic creators putting their work onto the platform. Will Hickl, co-founder of Fio, has been in the music industry for 15 years as a musician and founder of the Catholic record label Novum Records. During his career, he realized that secular platforms were not built for faith-based work — it was difficult to stand out, there was no fair compensation, and there was no community around it.With this in mind, Hickl, and co-founder Peter Buonincontro, launched Fio in 2023. The first version of the app hosted podcasts alone. The following year music was added, and the following year — thanks to a generous investor — the platform was able to host audiobooks and grow their collection of content. In an interview with EWTN News, Hickl shared that the platform’s “North Star” is the fact that he cares deeply about the artists and content creators.“We are a platform who, because we care, weʼre paying a penny per stream, which is already three to four times what Spotify pays,” he explained. “We want to offer better exposure and tooling. In fact, we already offer better exposure because a musician doesnʼt have to compete with 10 million other musicians. Thereʼs only maybe like 100, maybe 200 artists on the platform right now…thereʼs greater discoverability.”For creators, he hopes they would know that Fio “is the one that genuinely cares about them more than Apple or Spotify ever will.” From left to right: Will Hickl and Peter Buonincontro, founders of Fio. | Credit: Houston Dragna Currently, Fio offers three subscription levels for listeners — free, premium, and audiobooks +. While users who subscribe to the platform for free will have to listen to advertisements, Hickl pointed out that these ads “are reserved and curated for Catholic businesses, Catholic ministries, and then Catholic artists on the platform.”He also emphasized that these faith-based advertisements can also serve as a “cultural safeguard” so that parents who may be listening with children present don’t have to worry about inappropriate advertisements being played, as is the case with many secular platforms.Hickl explained that Fio aims to serve three different cohorts: Catholic creators, consumers, and businesses.“We are an artist first platform. We want to give you the best exposure, the best economics than any other platform,” he said. “For consumers, we want to give you greater choice, a better experience in terms of what you find, what your kids are exposed to. The third would be Catholic businesses who canʼt target based on religion on Facebook or Google or YouTube or anything like that. So weʼre offering a greater targeting mechanism, greater value in that regard.”For those seeking to have their content on Fio, they must go through a submission and review process. Before their content is accepted, creators must affirm that they are practicing Catholics who accept the teachings of the Church. They must also verify that their work was not primarily created by artificial intelligence. Lastly, each creator goes through a manual review process by the Fio team before their work is allowed to be on the platform.Looking to the future, the team at Fio is working on creating original content for the platform as well as being able to host video podcasts and music videos. Additionally, they are working to give Fio a more “liturgical feel.” For example, if there’s an important saint’s feast day, Fio would make suggestions to listeners of a podcast that talks about the saint or a song inspired by the saint.Hickl hopes that one day more artists will “be more excited about sharing their Fio link than the Spotify link.”He added that he hopes Catholics “would know I can trust this platform, it can and should be a part of my every day, because thereʼs so much treasure to discover.”“Thatʼs something I say a lot, which is that the Church has an immense amount of treasure and we just donʼt know about it. And so I want people to know the treasure is here and Fio is a place where itʼs aggregated,” he said.
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Meet Fio: the Catholic alternative to Spotify aiming to bring faith to your playlists #Catholic For many Catholics, faith formation often competes with busy schedules and endless digital distractions. Fio, a Catholic audio streaming platform, hopes to change that by putting faith-filled content at listeners’ fingertips. Dubbed “the Catholic alternative to Spotify,” the platform offers a growing library of podcasts, audiobooks, and music, giving users a way to stay connected to their faith wherever life takes them.Currently, Fio is being used in over 100 countries, is host to over 100,000 hours of Catholic content, and has over 1,000 Catholic creators putting their work onto the platform. Will Hickl, co-founder of Fio, has been in the music industry for 15 years as a musician and founder of the Catholic record label Novum Records. During his career, he realized that secular platforms were not built for faith-based work — it was difficult to stand out, there was no fair compensation, and there was no community around it.With this in mind, Hickl, and co-founder Peter Buonincontro, launched Fio in 2023. The first version of the app hosted podcasts alone. The following year music was added, and the following year — thanks to a generous investor — the platform was able to host audiobooks and grow their collection of content. In an interview with EWTN News, Hickl shared that the platform’s “North Star” is the fact that he cares deeply about the artists and content creators.“We are a platform who, because we care, weʼre paying a penny per stream, which is already three to four times what Spotify pays,” he explained. “We want to offer better exposure and tooling. In fact, we already offer better exposure because a musician doesnʼt have to compete with 10 million other musicians. Thereʼs only maybe like 100, maybe 200 artists on the platform right now…thereʼs greater discoverability.”For creators, he hopes they would know that Fio “is the one that genuinely cares about them more than Apple or Spotify ever will.” From left to right: Will Hickl and Peter Buonincontro, founders of Fio. | Credit: Houston Dragna Currently, Fio offers three subscription levels for listeners — free, premium, and audiobooks +. While users who subscribe to the platform for free will have to listen to advertisements, Hickl pointed out that these ads “are reserved and curated for Catholic businesses, Catholic ministries, and then Catholic artists on the platform.”He also emphasized that these faith-based advertisements can also serve as a “cultural safeguard” so that parents who may be listening with children present don’t have to worry about inappropriate advertisements being played, as is the case with many secular platforms.Hickl explained that Fio aims to serve three different cohorts: Catholic creators, consumers, and businesses.“We are an artist first platform. We want to give you the best exposure, the best economics than any other platform,” he said. “For consumers, we want to give you greater choice, a better experience in terms of what you find, what your kids are exposed to. The third would be Catholic businesses who canʼt target based on religion on Facebook or Google or YouTube or anything like that. So weʼre offering a greater targeting mechanism, greater value in that regard.”For those seeking to have their content on Fio, they must go through a submission and review process. Before their content is accepted, creators must affirm that they are practicing Catholics who accept the teachings of the Church. They must also verify that their work was not primarily created by artificial intelligence. Lastly, each creator goes through a manual review process by the Fio team before their work is allowed to be on the platform.Looking to the future, the team at Fio is working on creating original content for the platform as well as being able to host video podcasts and music videos. Additionally, they are working to give Fio a more “liturgical feel.” For example, if there’s an important saint’s feast day, Fio would make suggestions to listeners of a podcast that talks about the saint or a song inspired by the saint.Hickl hopes that one day more artists will “be more excited about sharing their Fio link than the Spotify link.”He added that he hopes Catholics “would know I can trust this platform, it can and should be a part of my every day, because thereʼs so much treasure to discover.”“Thatʼs something I say a lot, which is that the Church has an immense amount of treasure and we just donʼt know about it. And so I want people to know the treasure is here and Fio is a place where itʼs aggregated,” he said.

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Currently, Fio is being used in over 100 countries, is host to over 100,000 hours of Catholic content, and has over 1,000 Catholic creators putting their work on the platform.

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UK bishops welcome child safety but cautious on social media ban for under 16 #Catholic Catholic bishops across the United Kingdom say they need to see more legislative detail before supporting government proposals to ban social media for youth under 16. On June 15, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology Liz Kendall announced to the House of Commons that the government "will ban social media companies providing their services to under 16s.”Kendall said that the UK would be following the same model as Australia, which was the first country in the world to ban social media for youth under 16. The UK ban is due to come into effect early next year.In an email response to EWTN News on June 17 regarding whether bishops of England and Wales support the proposed ban, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference for England and Wales said: “Until the government publishes further details it’s hard to give a yes or no answer.” But Bishop John Arnold, the lead bishop for communications for the conference, “is very keen to ensure that the safety and protection of the dignity of young people online is a central concern for all,” the statement said.In a separate email to EWTN News, Bishop Arnold wrote that the “safety of children and young people in the digital world is paramount. Young people face many pressures today, which are often exacerbated by unrealistic and harmful material which they have accessed online.”“When it comes to the responsible and appropriate use of technology, the protection of children and young people is a shared responsibility among parents, schools, government and society,” he said.“I urge all people to work together to protect and place the dignity of the human person, especially children, the young and vulnerable, at the center of technological and legislative developments,” the bishop said.The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, meanwhile, said it would “prefer not to comment directly on the specific policy issue, but rather give a considered response to the noble principles behind online safety measures.” “The bishops support the introduction of any new measures which increase online safety for children and young people,” the conference said."We have a responsibility to ensure that children and young people are protected from harmful and age-inappropriate content, and from online environments that can negatively affect their wellbeing, relationships and healthy development,” the statement continued.The UK governmentʼs proposal includes banning youth usage of platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and X. They do not intend for messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to be included in the ban.Livestreamers and strangers being able to contact children will also be restricted for those under‑16 on other online services like gaming.“Who should take responsibility?”Edwin Fawcett, a Catholic psychotherapist based in England and Wales, is also unsure about the benefits and drawbacks of the proposal.“At this point the toll taken on mental and emotional health by social media, especially for developing brains, is virtually undisputed. Who should take responsibility for young peopleʼs formation and education?” he told EWTN News. “The Churchʼs wise answer: parents. Yet in a busy, driven and fragmented society the tsunami of digital hyper-reality is almost impossible to avoid or withstand,” he said.Fawcett argued that there is “a pandemic of relational wounds and deficits in the real world” which “has set the stage for widespread mental health issues, which are being activated and worsened by addictive online behavior — behavior chosen in an attempt to anesthetize the same wounds.”He continued: “Whether the ban is designed to support the rights and responsibilities of the family is hard to say. But letʼs pray that a deep renewal of family life, communities and culture will begin filling the void which social media has falsely promised to do — a void which may now be exposed by the incoming ban.”Lucy Marsh, a spokeswoman for the Family Education Trust — a secular research body which supports traditional family values — said that the ban has not been sufficiently “thought through.”“Children should not have unsupervised access to social media, but the government’s rushed plan to ban under-16s from using certain platforms is the wrong way to go about it,” she told EWTN News.“Rather than educating parents on how to restrict their child’s access to the internet and raising awareness about why young children should not have smartphones, the government is trying to introduce digital ID via the back door. This means using facial recognition and biometrics which involve giving even more information to tech companies. In the name of protecting children, those children will be under even more surveillance.”The government “should focus on ensuring tech companies make phones for children which cannot access social media apps, including WhatsApp, which is used by predatory adults to share pornography and groom children,” she said.
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UK bishops welcome child safety but cautious on social media ban for under 16 #Catholic Catholic bishops across the United Kingdom say they need to see more legislative detail before supporting government proposals to ban social media for youth under 16. On June 15, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology Liz Kendall announced to the House of Commons that the government "will ban social media companies providing their services to under 16s.”Kendall said that the UK would be following the same model as Australia, which was the first country in the world to ban social media for youth under 16. The UK ban is due to come into effect early next year.In an email response to EWTN News on June 17 regarding whether bishops of England and Wales support the proposed ban, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference for England and Wales said: “Until the government publishes further details it’s hard to give a yes or no answer.” But Bishop John Arnold, the lead bishop for communications for the conference, “is very keen to ensure that the safety and protection of the dignity of young people online is a central concern for all,” the statement said.In a separate email to EWTN News, Bishop Arnold wrote that the “safety of children and young people in the digital world is paramount. Young people face many pressures today, which are often exacerbated by unrealistic and harmful material which they have accessed online.”“When it comes to the responsible and appropriate use of technology, the protection of children and young people is a shared responsibility among parents, schools, government and society,” he said.“I urge all people to work together to protect and place the dignity of the human person, especially children, the young and vulnerable, at the center of technological and legislative developments,” the bishop said.The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, meanwhile, said it would “prefer not to comment directly on the specific policy issue, but rather give a considered response to the noble principles behind online safety measures.” “The bishops support the introduction of any new measures which increase online safety for children and young people,” the conference said."We have a responsibility to ensure that children and young people are protected from harmful and age-inappropriate content, and from online environments that can negatively affect their wellbeing, relationships and healthy development,” the statement continued.The UK governmentʼs proposal includes banning youth usage of platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and X. They do not intend for messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to be included in the ban.Livestreamers and strangers being able to contact children will also be restricted for those under‑16 on other online services like gaming.“Who should take responsibility?”Edwin Fawcett, a Catholic psychotherapist based in England and Wales, is also unsure about the benefits and drawbacks of the proposal.“At this point the toll taken on mental and emotional health by social media, especially for developing brains, is virtually undisputed. Who should take responsibility for young peopleʼs formation and education?” he told EWTN News. “The Churchʼs wise answer: parents. Yet in a busy, driven and fragmented society the tsunami of digital hyper-reality is almost impossible to avoid or withstand,” he said.Fawcett argued that there is “a pandemic of relational wounds and deficits in the real world” which “has set the stage for widespread mental health issues, which are being activated and worsened by addictive online behavior — behavior chosen in an attempt to anesthetize the same wounds.”He continued: “Whether the ban is designed to support the rights and responsibilities of the family is hard to say. But letʼs pray that a deep renewal of family life, communities and culture will begin filling the void which social media has falsely promised to do — a void which may now be exposed by the incoming ban.”Lucy Marsh, a spokeswoman for the Family Education Trust — a secular research body which supports traditional family values — said that the ban has not been sufficiently “thought through.”“Children should not have unsupervised access to social media, but the government’s rushed plan to ban under-16s from using certain platforms is the wrong way to go about it,” she told EWTN News.“Rather than educating parents on how to restrict their child’s access to the internet and raising awareness about why young children should not have smartphones, the government is trying to introduce digital ID via the back door. This means using facial recognition and biometrics which involve giving even more information to tech companies. In the name of protecting children, those children will be under even more surveillance.”The government “should focus on ensuring tech companies make phones for children which cannot access social media apps, including WhatsApp, which is used by predatory adults to share pornography and groom children,” she said.

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Bishops across the UK and other Catholic leaders say they want more information before endorsing a proposal to ban social media for youth under 16.

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