The idea of love widely presented by the internet and the media is not love but egotism, Pope Benedict XVI told young people last week.

Young people, he said, should not adapt themselves “to a love reduced to a commodity to be consumed without respect for oneself or for others, incapable of chastity and purity”, because love as a commodity did not offer freedom.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke to 50,000 children, 30,000 young people and 10,000 educators, answering three questions posed to him by a child, a young person and a teacher respectively. They belonged to Catholic Action, an Italian movement for children, teachers and young people. The ages in St Peter’s Square ranged between four and 18.