Pope Leo has issued a direct call for governments to intervene in the digital economy, urging age limits for children's device use, worker protections against AI-driven job loss, and regulatory frameworks that prioritize human dignity over market efficiency. The appeals appear in Chapter 4 of his new encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas," where he applies Catholic social teaching to the threats posed by artificial intelligence, social media, and automation.
The pope argues that digital tools "that could foster dialogue and participation are often used to construct distorted narratives and blur the boundaries between truth and falsehood." He warns that concentrated technological and economic power lets a few actors control what others accept as true, a dynamic he calls especially dangerous for democracy. Strengthening serious journalism, he says, is one necessary counterweight.
Age limits and school in the smartphone era
Leo wants schools to be places where students "learn to seek and love the truth," but he says digital media "fosters a culture of immediacy and hyper-stimulation, which gives rise to fatigue, boredom and apathy concerning the effort required for seeking the truth." He points to early, unsupervised mobile device use as a factor that "can exacerbate young people's vulnerabilities, foster addiction and expose them to isolation, bullying and cyberbullying."
The encyclical backs government interventions like those in Australia, which moved to set age limits and hold service providers accountable rather than putting the entire burden on families. Leo calls for "specific protections against all forms of online sexual exploitation and violence."
Automation must not sacrifice jobs for profit
On the workplace, Leo affirms that technology should relieve humans of dangerous or repetitive tasks. But he draws a hard line: "The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means, and the economic order must remain subordinate to human dignity and the common good."
He opposes layoffs with no support or transition plan. "Every introduction of automation and AI should be accompanied by verifiable measures to protect the employment, retraining and participation of workers," the encyclical states, adding that "continuous training and professional transitions accessible to all" must ensure the cost of adaptation does not fall solely on individuals. For government officials shaping workforce policy, AI Learning Path for Policy Makers offers a structured approach to understanding these regulatory and training challenges.
Redistribution, taxation and the limits of the market
Leo rejects the idea that growth alone will eventually reach the poor. "Instead of waiting for the benefits of growth to reach the poor 'eventually,' decisions need to be taken to ensure that growth becomes inclusive from the outset," he writes. He notes that absolute global wealth has increased but "is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands, widening inequalities both within and between countries."
The pope calls for "just laws and methods of redistribution," including tax systems that "lighten the burden on the weakest and ask for more from those with greater resources." He is blunt about the role of the state: "it is no longer possible to rely solely on the 'invisible hand' of the market. Politics has the task of orientating economies and technologies to the common good."
The hidden human cost of digital infrastructure
The encyclical also exposes the labor conditions behind AI systems. Leo describes workers earning minimal wages for "data labeling, model training and content moderation, often involving disturbing material." He goes further, pointing to the extraction of rare earth elements: "In some regions of the world, children and adolescents work in dangerous conditions, crushing the materials from which rare earth elements are extracted. The bodies of these people are scarred, injured and worn down so that computational flow may continue uninterruptedly."
He holds designers and financiers of addictive platforms morally responsible. "When business models thrive on human weakness, the person is treated as a means rather than as an end," the encyclical says. "Those who design or finance such systems bear a moral responsibility that cannot be ignored."
Why this matters for government professionals
Leo's encyclical frames digital regulation not as a technical issue but as a test of whether public institutions can protect truth, children, workers and the vulnerable from systems designed to exploit them. The document calls for a "vigilant State" that sets age limits, mandates worker retraining, enforces platform accountability, and uses tax policy to correct inequality. For public servants, the message is operational: regulation must be designed to guide without stifling, and to protect without taking over. Resources like AI for Government Courses can help teams build the expertise needed to craft policies that align with these principles while keeping pace with technological change.
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