Pope Francis prayed Saturday for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, using his Christmas Day address to urge health care for all, vaccines for the poor and for dialogue to prevail in resolving the world's conflicts.

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Amid a record-setting rise in COVID-19 cases in Italy this week, only a few thousand people flocked to a rain-soaked St. Peter's Square for Francis' annual "Urbi et Orbi" ("To the city and the world") Christmas address. Normally, the square would be packed with tens of thousands of holiday well-wishers.

At least they could gather this year. Italy's 2020 holiday lockdown forced Francis to deliver a televised address from inside the Apostolic Palace to prevent crowds from forming in the square. Although Italy this week counted more than 50,000 cases in a single day for the first time, the government has not ordered another lockdown.

The pope's Christmas Day speech gives him an opportunity to draw a global audience's attention to conflicts big and small. This year was no different. Francis lamented ongoing conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, newly flaring tensions in Ukraine and Ethiopia, and an "unprecedented crisis" in Lebanon.

"We have become so used to them (conflicts) that immense tragedies are now being passed over in silence; we risk not hearing the cry of pain and distress of so many of our brothers and sisters," he said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica as Swiss Guards stood at attention in the square below.

Francis warned of the pandemic tendency to withdraw and isolate, urging instead dialogue to try to resolve the world conflicts. He prayed in particular for those most affected by the virus, including women and children who have suffered increased abuse during lockdowns.

"Son of God, comfort the victims of violence against women, which has increased in this time of pandemic. Offer hope to young children and adolescents suffering from bullying and abuse," he said.

He prayed for "consolation and warmth" for older adults who are alone, as well as for health care workers who "generously devote themselves" to caring for the sick.

"Grant health to the infirm and inspire all men and women of good will to seek the best ways possible to overcome the current health crisis and its effects," he said. "Open hearts to ensure that necessary medical care – and vaccines in particular – are provided to those peoples who need them most."

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Francis delivered his speech hours after celebrating a "Midnight Mass" service for some 2,000 people, a fraction of the basilica's capacity. The service actually began at 7:30 p.m., a nod to the 85-year-old pope's endurance and a hold-over from last year, when the service had to end before Italy's nationwide COVID-19 curfew.

For the second day in a row, Italy on Friday set a daily pandemic record with 50,599 new cases. Another 141 people died, bringing Italy's official death toll in the pandemic to 136,386.

With the arrival of the Omicron variant in Italy, the Vatican secretary of state this week imposed a new vaccine mandate on Vatican staff, extending it to all employees except those who have recovered from COVID-19.

Previously, only employees who dealt with the public directly had to be vaccinated, such as the staff of the Vatican Museums and the Swiss Guards. Other Vatican employees could access their offices with regular testing. Now, there is no test-out exemption.

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The past year has seen a 55% spike in online bullying, a report by the Israel Police's child protection hotline (105) showed.

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Formed in 2016 as part of a government decision to establish a national program for the prevention of online violence and crime against minors, Unit 2015, which operates under the Lahav 433 Major Crimes Unit, is one of a kind in the world of law enforcement, comprising law enforcement with civilian experts.

According to the data released on Sunday, 2020 – especially the period between March and October 2020, a period during which Israel instated two nationwide lockdowns over the coronavirus pandemic –  saw  3,235 police complaints lodged over online shaming, social boycotts, the distribution of compromising photos and videos, bullying,  and sexual harassment, compared to 2,772 complaints in 2019.

About 25% of the reports were about sexual offenses. Many reports involved a threat of suicide, the data showed.

The most dubious platforms for minors in 2020 were the WhatsApp messaging app and Instagram photo and video sharing app.

About 2,317 of the reports to the police child protection hotline involved WhatsApp and 2,755 reports involved Instagram. Some 16% of online bullying and shaming incidents took place on Stips, an Israeli questions-and-answers platform, and 7% happened on Chinese video-sharing app Tiktok.

They are followed by the Stipes Forum with about 16% of the referrals and Tiktok with about 7% of the referrals.

The data further shows that the majority of the victims are aged 14-12 and about 67% of them are girls. The majority of the offenders are aged 15-12 and about 80% of them are boys.

Some 33% of the calls to the children protection hotline are made by parents, 26% are made by the victims themselves, 19% of the cases are reported by people who witnessed them, and 8% of the calls are made by teaching staff.

"The troubling data collected by Unit 105 reflect what our children have been going through in the virtual sphere over the past year. The internet offers many positive things, but it is also a very dangerous place for children and teenagers," Community Affairs Minister Orly Levy-Abekasis said.

"We have the responsibility, as parents, to keep our eyes and ears open and to contact 105 if we suspect anything. We will spare no effort to make sure our children remain safe, online, too," she said.

Unit 105 Commander Maj. Gen. Etty Betzer urged anyone who feels they have been victimized to contact the hotline.

"We will prosecute offenders to the full extent of the law," she asserted.

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To mark the week, the Child Online Protection Bureau published disconcerting figures on Sunday whereby 7,655 cases of online abuse were reported in 2019.

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Children spend many hours looking at screens, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and WhatsApp groups, among others, but instead of serving as the modern-day "tribal bonfire" – they instead pose considerable dangers. More than one-third of the reports cite online abuse of a sexual nature. The leading categories of online abuse are bullying, badgering, shaming, peer pressure and sexual harassment of minors and other sex crimes.

The majority of victims are between the ages of 12-14, while the largest number of victims is in the age 13 group (16%). Most of the perpetrators of the abuse are between 13 and 16 years old. Some 70% of those who commit online abuse are minors. A clear majority of the offenders are male (77%). Among the victims, 69% are girls or teenage girls, while 31% are boys or teenage boys.

The hotline number for reporting online abuse is 105. Some 38% of the reports to the hotline come from parents, 28% from victims and 10% from school staff.

Online abuse, however, doesn't only pertain to children and minors. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2018 around 195,000 people aged 20 and older said they were the victims of online abuse of other offenses, although the majority of these cases (89.2%) weren't reported to the police.

Meanwhile, a new study about the influences of screens on the family cell concludes that some 50% of parents aren't interested or involved in their children's online activities.

The study also found that the less interest parents take in their child's online activities, the more he or she is susceptible to distress stemming from online activity. These children are also likely to develop a greater dependence on screens.

Conversely, the study shows that when parents are actively present in their children's digital world, they are able to minimize their time spent online during the day by some 50% and time spent online at night by around 65%.

"We found that parental involvement raises the probability of a child turning to their parent when facing online trouble by 25%," said the person behind the study, clinical psychologist Dr. Yaron Sela. "Essentially, the parent is perceived as relevant in times of distress," he said.

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