Last Thursday [May 10], an unprecedented historic Asifa took place at Ateres Chaya Hall in Boro Park; to address the timely subject of safeguarding children from the dangers of Internet usage. The Asifa which drew an overflow crowd of fathers of Talmidim in Boro Park Yeshivos was a follow-up to an earlier gathering for mothers that had taken place a week earlier. The speakers included: Rabbi Chaim Rafael Perentz, Rav Yaakov Horowitz (Rosh Yeshivas Bais Meir), Rav Moshe Green (Rosh Yeshiva D’Monsey), Rav Dovid Olewski (Rosh Mesivta D’Gur), Rabbi Nosson Lowenthal (Principle of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Baltimore). [Hamodia News]
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28 Responses
“safeguarding children….”
What about safeguarding parents ? Don’t parents also need shemira?
They also have a yetzer hora!
YW – Thank you so much for posting this. (I was actually wondering last week why this wasn’t posted.)
It truly was a historic asifa, and there was B’h a tremendous crowd.
Let us hope that we should all zocheh to raise erlicher children untarnished in their precious youth by the outside world.
In the words of a rov who spoke in the name of one of today’s foremost Gedolim: “Assering the Internet won’t accompllish it – people will just find ways to circumvent the issur. Rather, the only eitzah is to make Limud Hatorah more geshmak!”
I wasn’t there. But I found out about it from theyeshivaworld.com. It’s a good thing we have a system of globally interconnected computers so that we may be kept informed of events, and that we can receive this information whenever we want.
I didn’t see this in Yated.
‘Let us hope that we should all zocheh to raise erlicher children untarnished in their precious youth by the outside world. ‘
AbbaEnglander.
You made a very good point. Unfortunatley its not only children who need guidance. Adults have a yetzer hora as well and are exposed to the same temptations. In fact they have more freedom and therefore the dangers can be just as effective!
Abba Englander – No one said that parents do not need safeguarding, which we all know they do, and which was brought up in passing at the asifa as well.
You need to understand the context of the Asifa, it was organized by the Yeshivas and Bais Yaakovs who are working hard to address a serious problem affecting our children. The focus was therefore on the children.
Addressing one issue, doesn’t mean that you don’t agree with another issue.
YW Editor:
I love your site, and I don’t believe in critisizing. However, just a note that Lakewood had the same asifa two years ago, and Monsey last year. Therefore, this asifa is not “unprecedented”, unless you mean unpresedented in Boro Bark.
Chainik Hocker: you’re using “circular reasoning”. you’re pushing for an Internet Asifa, but yet you want to be globally inter-connected. This is called a: “סתירה מיניה וביה” – a self-contradiction.
As an out of town person who uses the internet for “business”. I think this is the appropriate venue to thank the YW for the service they provide. I no longer need to visit any news sites with material. I just check my email and YW and Echinuch from Torah Umesorah. Thank you.
There was a massive event in Toronto as well – very well attended. The message I seem to be hearing is that despite the benefits of what we can share online, the risks for all are so great that there is a push to limit all internet use for everyone and not to have any internet access at home. I think it is for this reason that some orthodox websites have ceased being updated or have lost certain funding.
It’s funny that everyone who is blogging here, is in fact using the Internet. As a parent and an adult, all of us have to use our brains in weeding out what is “kosher” and what is not, in all areas of life, a bus ad, a newspaper, a magazine a book etc. The Internet offers wonderful things (like this site) if used correctly. We need to be involved with our children when they use the Internet, and encourage them to use their brains to filter shmutz out when they see it in other areas of life, on the street etc.. B”H I am proud of my children and the intellegent choices that they make.
This is so important!!! B’ h I’m engaged (and haven’t seen any “bad sites ” in probably ten months ) but last night I was nichshol in viewing inappropriate websites!! Please make sure to have filters, computers in public spaces , and most of all – make every second an opportunity for growth and coming closer to Hashem!!!
I love the internet, and wouldn’t do without it. Ni? The internet makes likes http://www.theyeshivaworld.com; although I don’t believe that the YW Editor seeks emes as he doesn’t post many comments from his viewers.
mommaknows – You have proven the entire basis of the Asifa. As R’ Moshe Green said in his drosha, we all think that our kids are tzadikim. But if we think back, we all know that we weren’t the tzaddikim that our parents thought we were. The same applies to us and our kids.
We have to protect our kids, not foolishly convince ourselves that they are safe on thier own. I assume that you don’t give your teenagers the car keys either.
And in case you are thinking, I do not have a computer or the internet at home. I am writing these comments in my office.
Thank you anonymous 1. You helped us understand the dangers of the Internet.
jdspero – It was quite obvious that all the speakers are not only fully aware of what is involved, but that they all knew countless tragic stories that must be chilling to have to deal with.
Rabbi Lowenthal from Baltimore, who seems to have made this his life’s work, gave a visual demonstration of everything from WiFi to blogs to Playstation, filters, predators, etc. He had the necessary information to address the problem knowledgeably.
jdspero Any gadol who speaks on the internet knows about it. Your question smacks of sorrowful skepticism. Remember that if we go back to the(ir) dark ages we are only getting closer to Har Sinai and our golden ages!
Gemorokop
I can relate countless tragic stories which occured long before the internet was around. Did it ever occur to you that those who feel too sheltered become rebelious and find another way out?. Cant we agree that the internet has some positive aspects which can perhaps help those individuals maintain their frumkeit without yearning for something negative?
YW is the perfect example. Lets try to make the best of the internet and help introduce new sites that will impress on our young and hopefully succeed in turning them away from the dangers!
Al tamin atzmicha ad yom moschah. I have a program installed on my computer where my rov and friends of mine at any time can look and see what I am doing on my pc. Yes I can turn the program off but then they know that I may be up to something. At the end of the day we have to try to control our selves as much as possible but the yetzer horah is strong and we all need borders. To the one that posted above that we are here blogging, yes you are correct. After a long day at work I need to relax a bit. I come here as opposed to going else where.
This scares me – I haven’t seen this issue addressed at all – even if you don’t have internet access at home, YOUR KIDS CAN STILL ACCESS THE WEB. All they need is a hot spot and a wi-fi capable device, such as numerous cell phones, PDAs and gaming devices. There are hot spots all over, but the most overlooked are the ones in our own homes. So, if you have a wiireless router at home and do not want to be achrai for the kid next door, PLEASE LOCK DOWN YOUR ROUTERS!! Set up your firewalls and lock down all outside access. Use WEP encryption, passkeys, MAC filtering, whatever it takes to lock out anyone except the few devices that YOU can account for. PLEASE – if your router is not locked down, ANYONE within range of your house (your neighbor or someone parked outside) can have unlimited internet access – and YOU are responsible!
There is a very interesting interactive CD Rom on the dangers of the internet with R Dr. A Twersky and YU profs, etc. It stresses limits to internet use but mostly having a close relationship with your kids. I personally saw (by title) improper materials on a certain person’s computer that shocked me. Perhaps the computer was borrowed and this is how the images got there. There may have been rebellion before the internet but I don’t think it was as easy to make contact with someone half way around the world who has horrible ideas or to get instructions to do nasty things or to purchase anything you want! As R Wolfson says in his emunah shiurim posted to 613.org, the mezuza is no longer a shield and the yetzer has free reign and can enter our homes.
People seem to make technology the culprit, when it is individuals who are responsible for their own actions (and those of their children from a chinuch perspective).
There have been michshalim since the Eitz haDa’as, and there will be michshalim after the Internet. That’s what bechirah chofshis is all about.
shazam, So we should all have guns because, as the NRA keeps saying, guns don’t kill people–people kill people?
Afterall if we have bechira we should encourage all Americans to carry a pistol on their waste band and give them the bechira not to use it every now and then.
I had a much longer answer written out, but I will leave most of it out.
1. Filters are nice, but if your kid knows more about computers than you do, good luck.
2. All the analogies of the Internet compared to anything else are misleading. Here’s why.
There is nothing in the past that came close to the ease, power, and accuracy of googling your favorite taava with no one to walk by and catch you, which they could, prior to the Internet, had you gone to buy a ‘magazine’ and pray no one ever caught you with it until you somehow manged to dispose of it.
3. There is a midrash that a certain Amora said to his talmidim, “tomorrow we will learn about our friend Menashe, the King”.
That night, Menashe came to him in a dream and said, “You call me a friend? Do you know a fraction of the Torah that I do?” and he showed the Amora that he, Menashe was greater.
So the Amora replied, “Then, (Rav) Menashe, how is it that you were nichshal in Avoda Zarah if you were such a talmid chacham”.
Menashe answered, “Were you alive in my time, you would have lifted the hem of your robe to run faster to worship idols.”
Read his answer carefully. Were you alive in my time, you would have LIFTED YOUR HEM to run faster to worship idols. You figure that one would, at least, do the aveira at a leisurely pace, not do everything you can to be ovair it ASAP. But this is the koach hayetzer in this matter.
Substitute Taavas Nashim for Avoda Zarah, and you have an idea – and this was Menashe saying how an Amora would act – and you trust your kid to ALWAYS make the right decisions?
Stay safe and knowledgeable, everyone.
There are some amazing aspects of the internet. So much information can be found at the tip of your fingertips with only a few words typed in to google. Homework, and doing reports is so much easier than it used to, when you had to look up everything in the library, search thru many refrence books and so on. Thats not to say there aren’t some bad things about it. And im not only talking about the “bad” that everyone else is thinking. When any teenager joe-shmoe gets in a fight with his friend and wants revenge, how simple is it for him to get a step by step, do it yourself instuctions of how to assemble a bomb or other such weapon. Something is very wrong about that.
My wife was very bothered by the amount of time I was spending on the internet, YW included. She suggested we cancel internet in our home. This was very difficult for various reasons. So we agreed that we will have a set time for the internet. Since than, I use the internet, once a day, every morning, while I have my cup of cofee. I check my e-mail, my bank account, and YW. That is it.
I make exceptions only when I need something very specific.
As I heard last night, If you can make your children happy, they won’t resort to these other distractions to look for happiness.
What have we done lately to make our children happy????????????????