“In recent decades, from painful and tragic experience, the Catholic Church has become profoundly aware of the gravity and effects of the sexual abuse of minors, the suffering it causes, and the urgent need to heal wounds, combat such crimes and establish effective means of prevention. For this reason, the Church senses the duty to approach these issues with a long-term vision”. Pope Francis said this today as he received in audience the participants in the conference “Promoting Digital Child Dignity – From Concept to Action”. According to Pope Francis, the development of new technologies brings about new “opportunities for minors”, their “education” and their “personal growth”. “It allows for a wider sharing of knowledge, promotes economic development and offers new possibilities in a number of areas, including that of health care”. Also, “new technologies open up new horizons, particularly for those minors living in situations of poverty and distant from the urban centres of more industrialized countries”. The challenge then, for the Pope, is “to ensure that minors have safe access to these technologies, while at the same time ensuring their healthy and serene development and protecting them from unacceptable criminal violence or grave harm to the integrity of their body and spirit”.