In an article in the Jewish Press, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow is quoted as saying that “the threat of the Internet is greater than all the previous perils combined.” He said it at a meeting of “120 rabbis, dayanim, heads of yeshivos and principals of girls schools in Boro Park and Flatbush, (that) met on Sunday, Asarah B’Teves”
I note that this meeting was not in any way connected to the Agudah. I wonder if that was intentional. Is Agudah now officially staying out of the internet controversy?
In any case, Rabbi Perlow’s statement is right on the money. I fully agree with him. The problem is huge. Almost anything that is found in life can be found on the internet. They don't call it virtual reality for nothing. The only difference is that in life, the reality of one’s desires cannot usually be found so quickly. In virtual reality, one click of a mouse, and your there.
“There” …can be anywhere from a Daf Yomi website to one where there are the most disgusting images that man can devise. How convenient. Now anyone with even the most bizarre and outlandish sexual obsession can feed his lust almost instantaneously. And one never needs to leave the privacy of their own homes. There are pornographic websites for every taste! I remember reading somewhere that the vast majority of websites accessed by the public are such sites.
So I agree that the danger is very great, not only for children but for all of us. I heard of another statistic showing that most children who use the internet will end up inadvertently viewing a porno site. They will innocently click on a website they didn’t know was pornographic. I estimate that more than half the e-mails I receive are pornographic. At least if judged by the subjectlines. I just delete them all. But I wonder how many people, even Frum ones, take a peek just out of curiosity?
There are tons of stories of decent people succumbing to porn on the web. Some by accident, some out of simple curiosity, and some out of desire. Chat rooms are available for some people who might otherwise control their desires and can easily be tempted to become “adventurous”. They will seek out and attempt to entice young people into all kinds of sexual acts, fulfilling their wildest sexual fantasies with the help of innocent victims.
There have been people caught on camera trying to solicit sex from minors via chat rooms by police sting operations. NBC has an entire series devoted to that. There have also been some very public cases involving Frum people. One such case was published in the Jewish Observer a few years ago. It was written by a Charedi Mechanech, a principal, who got caught downloading illegal pornographic photos of minors. No one is immune.
So, what the solution? Do we dig a deep hole in the sand and stick our heads as far as possible down into it? That seems to be the response by some rabbinic leaders. The answer to everything it seems is to just cut ourselves off more and more from the world… withdraw into our own Daled Amos, surround ourselves with ever more fences, and never dare wander outside.
If that would work, I could hear it, even though I would disagree with it. But it can’t work. No one is so isolated that he will never encounter the internet. Besides it is so entrenched that it will be virtually impossible to implement any Takana banning it. According to the Jewish Press article:
“(I)n Boro Park, Flatbush, and Williamsburg, more than 90 percent of the homes in each community had Internet access.” “Suprisingly” they say.
It will be encountered one way or another. Either one will be prepared to do so or one will not. If unprepared, the danger is increased many times over. Because an unprepared accidental encounter with pornography by someone on the web may end up with them becoming “hooked” …sucked in by images never before seen or imagined.
But one might argue that even if such encounters might happen, what is the alternative? We must at least try to eliminate the scourge from our midst. If someone slips through the cracks, it’s a terrible thing but at least the “evil entity” won’t be so pervasive, found in almost every home as it is now.
But as bad as the problem inherent in the internet is, it is not an “evil entity”. It is merely a medium…one that can be used for evil, to be sure. But one that can also be used for the good.
Since we are talking virtual reality at the click of a mouse, why cut oneself off from the positive side of the internet? The click of a mouse can not only get you porno, it can get you thousands of Torah based sites …Torah learning to cater to any taste or time frame. It is indeed an information superhighway. The benefits are so great, that anyone not availing himself of it is simply living in the dark ages. Whether it is something as simple and convenient as Mapquest or something as complex as accessing all the available information and research on a specific bone cancer like Ewing’s Sarcoma, the internet has it for you at the click of a mouse. Do I really need to preach to the choir here? Anyone reading this internet post certainly realizes its benefits.
No, the answer is not in closing oneself or one’s children off from the benefits of the internet. The answer is not to pretend it doesn’t exist and remove it from one’s consciousness. That is impossible anyway. The answer is in knowing how to use it properly. There are many ways one can do so and in the process protect their children and themselves from the dangers. What these methods are is beyond the scope of this post. The danger is as real as our rabbinic leaders say it is. But their solution is not realistic. Burying one’s head in the sand deeper and deeper will not solve the problems posed by the internet. At best it will only temporarily reduce the threat and in some cases only delay it. Banning it only makes it more enticing as a “forbidden fruit”. Encountering it suddenly and when least expected will be far worse if one is unprepared to do so. There are better solutions. And reasonable people can find a way to use the internet for good and minimize the chances for bad.
