Jewish Schools Tell Parents to Delete Social Media Apps

Jewish Schools Tell Parents to Delete Social Media Apps

Time Stamp: October 16, 2023 3:35 AM
Source Node: 2937836

Jewish and Israeli schools have urged parents to delete social media accounts from their children’s devices to avoid exposure to graphic content in the wake of the escalating Israel-Hamas conflict.

The schools are worried about hostage videos that might be posted on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, possibly causing distress.

This follows concerns that terrorist gangs may manipulate social media algorithms to post hostage videos to Israeli influencers and Jewish followers in a bid to cause psychological warfare on Israeli and Jewish supporters globally.

Hamas warned of disturbing posts

According to a CNN article, Hamas has warned about posting murders of hostages on social media in the event that Israel targets people in Gaza without warning.

A BBC report indicates that already there have been videos of civilians being killed that have been posted online, pushing the schools to issue the directive to protect children from graphic content.

Now, a school’s parent’s association in Tel Aviv indicated it anticipated seeing videos of hostages “begging for their lives” to show on social media platforms.

A message by the association to a parent with kids at a high school in Tel Aviv that was seen by CNN asked parents to delete social media apps like TikTok from their children’s phones.

“We cannot allow our kids to watch this stuff. It is difficult, and furthermore, impossible, to contain all this content on social media,” read the message from the association.

“Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”

Several other people, like Boundless Israel, a nonprofit organization co-founded by Aviva Klompas, took to the X platform, formerly Twitter, to post about such messages from schools.

These messages have not been unique to Israeli schools alone.

Same message abroad

Jewish schools in the US are reportedly also asking parents to desist from sharing war videos or pictures that may surface, as well as protecting their children from accessing such content.

In line with this, the schools have also asked parents to uninstall social media apps that might be used to spread undesirable content during this war period.

“Together with other Jewish day schools, we are warning parents to disable social media apps such as Instagram, X, and TikTok from their children’s phones,” the head of a New Jersey school wrote in an email.

“Graphic and misleading information is flowing freely, augmenting the fears of our students. Parents should discuss the dangers of these platforms and ask their children on a daily basis about what they are seeing, even if they have deleted the most unfiltered apps from their phones.”

In New York, another school asked parents to monitor their kids’ social media usage and “discuss how to avoid opening these videos and what to do should they encounter such media.”

Another school in the UK asked the students themselves during a safety assembly to uninstall some social media apps.

While this approach has been echoed by Israeli schools across the globe, other schools have urged parents to talk to their children about the content they see on social media, as opposed to a total ban.

One of the leading Jewish schools in the UK told the BBC that social media was “a difficult, delicate matter” because students use these platforms always.

“I think this always applies, but particularly at the moment when what they are seeing might be very distressing,” they said via email.

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Social media manipulation

Since the war broke out and the conflict continues to grow, there has been news on social media of the desolation, be it by news outlets or individual accounts.

According to ABC News, the hashtag #Israel has garnered over 25 billion views on TikTok and more than 18 million posts on Instagram.

Although it later appeared to be a clip from the video game Arma 3, a post showing an airplane being shot down, featuring the hashtag #PalestineUnderAttack, was viewed more than 500,000 times.

Another video purported to show Israeli generals captured by Hamas fighters was viewed more than 1.7 million times by Monday. According to CNN, the video, however, shows the detention of separatists in Azerbaijan.

With such a wide reach, the platforms are also open to manipulation in spreading misinformation and deepfakes.

In the UK, technology secretary Michelle Denelan met with online platform bosses from Google, Meta, X, TikTok, and Snapchat to ask them to outline their course of action in removing illegal material “that breaches their terms and conditions.”

The European Union (EU) on Tuesday warned X owner Elon Musk against disinformation circulating on the platform amid the conflict. The EU also warned Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to respond within 24 hours, outlining their plans to combat the surge in disinformation on his platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

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