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Have kids? No Internet for you!
Private School aims to protect kids from lewd content
According to the New Jersey Star Ledger, Leaders of some Orthodox Jewish private schools in Lakewood have banned Internet access from homes with school-age children - in order to protect them from sexual content. If a child's household is found to have Internet access, the child could be expelled from school. Palm Pilots and cell phones with Internet access have also been banned, according to the report.

Most recommended from 193 comments


RafS
join:2003-03-06
Miami, FL

4 recommendations

RafS

Member

It's not just the internet

Everyone has to remember that for Orthodox Jews their religion isn't something they do once a week. It's really a way of life. Most of us here wouldn't agree with their way of protecting their children but historicaly they have been a group that keeps to themselves, even around more 'modern' members of their religion. As someone else said, most of them don't even have televisions so not having internet access isn't a big deal. This way of life allows them to be more in touch with their faith, plus, if i had kids, i wouldn't mind them spending some more time reading or playing outside than sitting in front of a screen where they could, and would probably, get into trouble.

cpayne5
Premium Member
join:2004-01-06

4 recommendations

cpayne5

Premium Member

~

It's a private school, and as far as I'm concerned, they can do whatever they want. No complaints here.
YChicagoVoIP
join:2004-12-19

2 recommendations

YChicagoVoIP

Member

thoughts from an ultra-Orthodox Jew

I know I'm going to get it for this...

I am a member of the Orthdox Jewish community. Most of you would probably label me "ultra-Orthodox". I don't visit porn sites, touch any woman other than my wife, eat any form of non-Kosher food, cheat anyone in business, (all in no particular order), or do anything else of the sort. As you can tell from this post, though, I do use the Internet.

1. Orthodox Jews are not "backwards" people. For some reason, lots of people seem to think that Amish people are "cool" (or whatever the word is today), while religious Jews are not. Last I checked, almost everyone in the Orthodox Jewish community, including the ultra-Orthodox (Hassidim and such, like me) is involved in business and quite connected to the outside world, despite what people may think. We all have cell phones (which we don't answer on Saturdays, and we get by somehow) and almost all of us have Internet at work. We drive cars. Anyone who thinks we're "backwards" has no clue.

2. To be told that a private school bans Internet at home without being given an adequate explanation of the reason for it is very unreasonable. This ban stems from Judaism's concept of the sanctity of marriage. Contrary to what many people believe, Jews believe in stable marriages, in which all forms of physical abuse is strictly forbidden, and no, we don't have sex through holes in sheets, not even the Hassidim. That is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN because it minimizes a wife's pleasure.

The reason Internet is banned is to limit the flow of pornography and such things to a Jewish home, so that the boys are not trained that women are an object used to satisfy their desires. The reason the only woman I touch is my wife is because that maintains the sanctity of our relationship. It makes it very clear to her, to me, and to everyone else that our relationship is something special and different, and looking at pornography simply doesn't fit into that. I don't think I need to make that any clearer.

Those of us who are technically inclined have seen people mess up their computers with all forms of spyware, bringing in popups whose content used to be sealed in a plastic bag behind the counter at 7-11. Everyone knows that, once you click that first link to that porn site, you don't get out of there so quickly.

Before y'all decide that this school's protection of the values of its community -- my community, for that matter (not that I live in Lakewood, NJ, though I have been there a few times), it might be worth considering the moral values of these people you're so quick to disparage and think about whether or not you might want to keep unfiltered, unsupervised Internet away from your kids also -- not that I'm trying to force this on anyone, but that responsible parenting might cause you to give the matter some thought.