New York – On Sunday tens of thousands of Jews filled Citi Field in Queens and heard from Haredi leaders that the Internet should be avoided in the home at all costs and used sparingly at work, and then only with a filter blocking out content that could be damaging spiritually.
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Debate as you will what some may see as draconian edicts to protect the Jewish community from moral corruption. But at the heart of the matter is a question that should concern us all: How do we keep our children safe on the Internet?
We know that we cannot work around the Internet. Research from the Pew Foundation indicates that 54 percent of children say that they go to Google first when they have a question, as opposed to only 26 percent who say they go to a parent and three percent who say they go to a teacher. Rather, we must figure out how parents and teachers can make this important tool work safely and effectively for our kids.
The difficulty is that even the simple solutions are incredibly complicated.
Powerful filters can block illicit images and material but those filters often block out the good with the bad and limit far too much useful information. This solution has been discussed and debated on our own campus concerning Internet access in dormitories.
Some yeshivot have considered avoiding technology altogether and sticking with books and blackboards. But that would leave students without the digital competence required to succeed academically in college and beyond, not to mention that it would rob teachers of increasingly exciting and effective educational tools.
Continue reading full editorial: YU Blogs
Dr. Eliezer Jones is the educational technology specialist at Yeshiva University’s Institute for University-School Partnership. Dr. David Pelcovitz is the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair in Psychology and Jewish Education at YU’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration. The opinions expressed above are solely those of the authors and should not be attributed to Yeshiva University.
For more information about safe Internet rules and guidelines, visit: www.yuschoolpartnership.org/parentguidedigitalage.
what a brilliant idea
Great! Well said! I’ve been arguing a lot with people since this whole asifa hype came along. I’m glad to see that there are some thinking people out there.
Without a good education about jewish values and basic human values, you can have 10 filters and your kids will find away around it.
The times of keeping kids locked up and know nothing about the outside world is kinda over. Live with it! The one thing a person can do now to keep their kids safe from outside influence is simple education.
Make him love who he is and what he represents.
Thank you. I didn’t need frenzied hyperbole nor spend well over $1.5m to hear this.
a misguided waste of time when there r so many bigger issues to address . just another example of lack of leadership!
Really works, check the statistics (Sarcasm).
חז”ל tell us “there is no guardian against adulterous inclinations”.
The YU, should consider their slogan as “do just opposite of what the Chreidim suggest.
It seem those attending the asifa are looking for a silver bullet that can solve the internet problem. What Dr Jones and Dr Pelcovitz are suggesting requires works. Unfortunately, the Rabbi’s (even without internet) have gotten the “instant coffee” syndrome. Hence, they will shy away from properly educating the young and rather just ban the internet. Sad..sad.
What a great idea! My teenager has a desire to look at shmutz, but all I have to do is instill him with Jewish values and the urge goes away. I’ll put bags of marijuana on the living room table every day, and if I instill him with Jewish values he’ll never want it. And don’t bother locking your doors. Just instill your neighbors with Jewish values and you’ll never get robbed.
This is the exact point they were stressing yesterday, it its not haredi rabbis, it is the gedolim crying out that if we continue like in other circles in klal yisroel, by doing absolutely nothing to stop yidden from falling, we will lose all our pure neshomois, the sensitivity we were raised with, and the respect for the Torah and its leaders passed down from generation to generation. It can clearly be seen from this article and from many that write onto this blog that it is to late for them, but at least they can save it for their kids and students. Please pass the gedoilims message onto all of klal Yisroel, don’t lose another generation by making a joke out of the whole thing. Korach was also serious, he took serious things and made them look cheap in the eyes of the masses, don’t make the same mistake. Laitz echod docheh maioh toichochois.
Assuring the internet is part of a broader strategy by a large segment of the Chareidi leadership to keep their followers in the dark, ensure they are unable to function in what is quickly becoming an almost totally electronic platform for commerce and information sharing. At at time when the most basic life functions have migrated to the internet and when you actually have to pay a penalty to transact in the old style of “bricks and mortar” establishments, assuring the internet means they will not have the skills to get a job and will pay more for their basic needs. Last night clearly showed that there is large segment of rabbonim who yearn for the lifestyle yidden had 100 years ago in the alte heim. Fortunately, there are a growing number of rabbonim waiting in the wings for them to move on who will assume the mantle of leadership of the klals with more progressive ideas that balance dass torah with the needs and norms of modern society.
There are children who will listen, and there are difficult children who no matter what you try will not listen.
This is ridiculous typical YU talk. We all know it is not that simple. When klal yisrael was being nichshal in avoda zara chazal davened that hashem take away the yetzer hara for that. Teaching morals wasn’t said there and should’t be said here. Its oversimplifying and impossible to do.
Bring hashem into your childrens and ur lives be close to hashem make him a part of ur life and then filters will work. If you will have hashem next to u and feel close to him you won’t want to beat around the filter
We need more teaching in Choyves Halvuvois,Meseles yeshurim,Reishis Chochme,and read every morning Ageres Huramban…If the mechanchim and Roshei yeshivoth should put in more effort in misser sefurim they would see much much better results….We do not have the big rebbes who inspired in us kedishe and tehara with their shalesh sides torahs,shabbos tshuveh …The generation is orphaned from those major Gedoyle Hador and we all looking up to Shemyim for more syate shemyeh….
I think that the problem is that we are dealing with two very different worlds: One in which children are exposed to external influences freely, and one in which people go to great lengths to insulate their families.
So what else is new? The fact is that there will always be kids who are more vulnerable (adults as well), due to many factors. Just as great parents can sometimes fail with one of their children, there will inevitably be those who will be detrimentally affected by exposure to the internet. Realistically, however, kids who are easily led astray managed to get into trouble way before the age of the internet. There were plenty of other ways……..
very well said,but the problem is that 95% of frum parents and even the MECHANCHIM and ROSHEY HAYESHIVA’S and the REBBES cannot articulate and explain,what judaism is all about,and why we be frum,and why our religion is the only true one,and the reason they cannot explain it is a simple one,they themselves don’t have a clue.
And that was the reason,that our leaders and Rabonim felt that the only way they can protect judaism and prevent the sheep from leaving the fold,is by building a tight ghetto around us,no education no radio no television,as little contact with outside world as possible,just like in the old Soviet Union or North Korea,
Well it aint gonna work no more,because every kid has now the whole world,and all the information he wants one mouse click away,
it will be up to the 5% of the jews ( like AISH HATORAH,OHR SOMEACH and similar organizations) to save what’s left of judaism
Wasnt there a similar editorial posted here a few weeks back when the Asifa was beginning to make headlines – article basically said the same thing – instill values and education into people rather than trying to filter out information.
The Drs. are correct. This way you always have your filter with you.
It would help if the first line of their article did not completel;y misquote what was said at the asifa.
Apparently this was written before the asifa.
In other news, YU posted noyices of its promotion of gays on its internet site.
Solutions so far were no computer in the house if not needed for work. A computer for work should be filtered amd locked away just as parents do to their legal firearms. If you use compiters some times than parents can go to a kosher computer center and do their work there. But now I’m going to tell you a solution no one talked about. Register every frum yid and vote out any liberal democrat who refuses to support a bill that will make it illegal to send illicit pictures on the internet. Just as television can’t just show anything they want why can’t the internet have the same government rules. We can get other communities worldwide involved. The politicians will listen.
Anyone knocking YU ever been inside the YU bais medresh or ever speak in learning with the the YU roshai yeshiva?
I’m surprised that the asifa organizers didn’t make sure to have one great Mechanech to speak about the modifications of our Chinuch system so necessary to keep children away from the net. For example, most chasidishe kids are so exited by the internet due to the lack of any other venue for recreation. Allowing them some sports would be a good place to start.
If you want to be successful as a jew, you need the internet. Just for charity alone, there is no way you could donate as much as you can if you have an internet connection. Think about this when you arrange your repentance and your future.
Wow!
This issue is bigger then Chareidim vs YU.
I don’t think the article is suggesting that there not be filters.
I hope that those who participated in the Asifa didn’t get the message that the answer is simply filters.
Complex problems sometimes require complex answers. We need to have parents involved in raising kids: being a parent is more than packing the kids off to school.
Our schools (from pre-k and on) need to be more than factories that turn-out machines that memorize and spit out answers or can learn a blot gemarah without learning how to be a mentsh.
Yes, we need to have values. We also need to have protections. Who is immune to the yetzer hara? Yes, parents need to be involved (and monitor) and yeshivot need to teach (but also need to instill musar and derech eretz).
So according to these 2 gentlemen, all we need to do is “educate” and the desires of the flesh go away. So according to this premise, the warnings on packs of cigarettes should have completely eradicated the scourge of smoking. Someone please tell me how well that worked out.
Furthermore, Dr. Pelcowitz was one of the speakers at YU’s infamous conference on homosexuality. He said that you can’t judge feelings, and it’s not a choice. Does he now approve of “educating” gays to make them straight, or does he still believe that, when it comes to homosexuality, that you can’t “educate” away a desire, but somehow approves of it to do away with filters?
Finally, according to the writers of this article, if we would take an “educated” Jewish teen, put a stack of pornography magazines in his room, and surreptitiously film the results, that our educated teen will NOT have a desire for it because his education precludes desires of the flesh. I’ll take that bet.
Not putting basic filters on will insure that your kids will have taiva thrown in their face. No teenager can resist that. Get real. The sad fact is that most MOs don’t even consider shmiras einayim an ideal. I know this from countless examples.
Ask a kid today why they are jewish and 99 percent of them won’t even have the correct answer. A study was done a few years ago in over 250 yeshivos and bais yakovs with one simple question and 99 percent got the wrong answer. Sorry to inform all of you but the problem is education education education and then more education and alot of davening to the ribono shel oilem.
I know people who do not have the internet but went off the derech. i guess they went off the derech because their freinds must have had the internet.
Lets pray for moshiach.
Reply to 37. Yes we can outlaw illicit pictures sent on the internet if we frum yidden allihned ourselves with the christian and moslems here in America. We can carry this ca$paighn worldwide. Get the religious arabs involved as well as the vatican. Our gadolei ra bbonmim should spearhead this campaighn. It would show the world real jews are H agents. We would be respected even by our enemies. Let’s call dov hikind and greenfeld and let them organize a bill to ban shmutz to at least kids under 18 on the internet. It should become a federal crime. We can do it and the world will join our holy battle.
I do agree that we MUST educate our children and give them hashkafos of why to be Jewish. but NO such education will stop the basic carnal desires, unless you become a complete baal mussar. Avoiding taavah is wisdom too.
with all the ahavas yisroel that was supposedly instilled at the asifa, its comforting to see that we were able to nevertheless still retain some extra special sinas chinam for YU.
Stupid idea. Our Gedolei HaTorah know better than all your researchers and professors.
Don’t know what filter’s Dr. Jones tested, but I have “FIlternet” and set it to the minimum which just blocks out site with porngraphic contents, that’s it, I work on Interent all day and hardly did I have a regular site blocked, I don’t even notice i’m using a filter! & if once in a trillion clicks I have a regular site blocked (happened once in the three years I’m using filter!) I just need to call them or chat with them directly fro the blocked page and they’ll unblock it in seconds!! my friends have the same service for free from K9webprotection.com for free! fact is polls show the majority of society watch indecent things and ANYBODY kidding themselves they they can trust their children with the net and rely on their inner filters is borderline dumb…just checkout facebook pages of today’s goyish teens and you’ll see what’s going on…
Does anyone know of a reputable, Kosher, internet filter that I can download?