People’s hearts and heads are being harmed by the ‘power and temptations of technology’, the Bishop of Oxford said in his Easter sermon.

Preaching at Christ Church on Easter Sunday, the Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft said the world needed to hear the religious festival’s message of ‘new life and hope’ and ‘lift their minds and hearts to heaven’.

“It’s not easy in this generation to set your minds on things which are above,” he said.

“There are many distractions. We carry in our smartphones the anxieties and despair of the whole world.”

In his sermon, published on the Diocese of Oxford's blog, said people were feeling ‘burn out’ not just as a result of longer working hours but the ‘exhaustion of distraction through technology’.

The bishop said: “Our own hearts and minds and those of our young people are being shaped and overwhelmed and harmed by the power and temptations of technology.

“Society needs much better regulation and oversight than currently exists. Online safety should be as much a human right as offline safety.”

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He called for the Online Safety Bill, being debated by the Parliament in which he sits as a ‘Lord Spiritual’, to be strengthened to protect people from ‘dragging our hearts and minds down to earth’.

With an eye to the growth of programmes like ChatGPT, an internet based chat ‘bot’ that can write anything from a Shakespeare-inspired sonnet to an Easter sermon, the Rt Rev Dr Croft said: “Britain will need robust regulation of artificial intelligence to build public trust and confidence and to prevent further harm.”