The pontiff told journalists on his plane back from a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina that attachment to computers is "bad for the soul".
He encouraged parents to put computers in communal rooms to stop young people accessing things like pornography or "programmes that are empty and without values".
He spoke of the wider danger of computers, TV and smart phones suggesting many parents feel their children were in 'another world' when they were trying to have family time, like meals together.
The Pope said the virtual world "is a reality that we cannot ignore" and asked people to think about the amount of time they were spending staring at a screen.
Pope Francis has around 19 million followers on social media site Twitter but is not heavily involved in new technology, saying he has not watched TV in more than 20 years.
Vivienne Pattison is a Christian who directs MediaWatch UK, an organisation which campaigns for family values in online and traditional media, and internet safety.
She told Premier: "I think it's wonderful. I'm very pleased he's said that, and he's really pointed a finger at something that is a real problem.
"He has made a really important point that actually what's available on the internet just at the click of a mouse, if you're not very careful, really is potentially quite dangerous for children and parents need to get involved with this.
"So for example my children are still young enough; we have a real that nothing that connects to the internet goes upstairs... other people I know turn their routers off after a certain time at night.
"Children who are using smartphones a lot and computers all the time are actually missing out on the real world, they're missing out on interaction with other people around them, and whilst I accept that a lot of the time actually they're interacting with each other via these devices, nothing beats face to face, real world interaction."
Listen to Premier's Marcus Jones speaking to Vivienne Pattison on the News Hour.
