VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is demanding that Facebook, Apple, Google and other tech companies urgently take measures to remove child porn from the web and to prevent children from accessing pornography online.

Francis told a Vatican conference of religious leaders and high-tech representatives Thursday that it’s no longer acceptable to merely follow the law in monitoring online content, since technology is fast outpacing regulation.

Rather, he demanded that companies themselves assume a moral responsibility to protect young people from what he said were the ruinous effects of pornography on their emotional and sexual development.

He said: “There is a need to ensure that investors and managers remain accountable, so that the good of minors and society is not sacrificed to profit.”

Francis was addressing participants at the conference “Promoting Digital Child Dignity.”