A new organization has inserted itself at our schools, offering to inspect parents’ devices to ensure that they are “kosher.” While packaged as a bold stand for our children’s kedusha, this initiative is not just misguided—it is a profound failure of logic, a waste of the community’s precious resources, and a direct insult to the diligent work of a group that has the gedolim’s true backing and support.
The very premise is flawed. If you do not trust a parent to manage their technology, a performative check is meaningless. The 5% of parents who actually circumvent the rules will simply bring a second “kosher” device. This entire charade only inconveniences the 95% of responsible parents, treating them like suspects. Furthermore, one must ask: are these checks enforced equally? Or, as so often happens, do the well-connected and wealthy parents receive a discreet pass? A standard that isn’t universal is not a standard at all; it’s a performance.
Worse is the financial imposition, they charge a significant fee of $125 for this superficial service. One must imagine standing before Hashem Rosh Hashana and being asked: “For what worthy cause did you spend the precious resources of our struggling community?” Would the answer—”We paid for a security theater that the majority didn’t need and that the determined minority easily bypassed”—be satisfactory?
It is crucial to note that this organization, despite its authoritative name, appears to be a project without broad rabbinical backing or the consensus of our leading Rabbanim. This is not a sanctioned communal effort; it is an entrepreneurial venture capitalizing on fear.
If the founders of this new organization genuinely wanted to make a difference; They would:
* **Host real Technology Awareness events** for parents, teaching them how to navigate this challenge.
* **Offer year-round, practical support** with filter installations, camera removals, and Wi-Fi management—the unglamorous, hands-on work that actually makes a difference.
* Compete with TAG on the quality of their education and support, not on the theatrics of their enforcement.
Our schools that forego this new service have parent bodies just as strong and committed. They prove that true protection comes from trust, education, and empowerment—not from pointless inspections. We must challenge our school administrators to reject easy gimmicks and invest in real solutions.
— A parent concerned with substance, not spectacle
TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected]
Next will be the KGB showing up at your door to inspect your home and also charge you for it.
I had to subscribe to one of these organizations. This is such a hoax. People making a whole business all “leshem shamayim”, and a shame on the schools for only accepting parents who go along with it.
Surprise surprise, another idiotic Lakewood thing.
Not sure why you’re blaming lkwd Brooklyn and many other places have the same garbage
I live in Brooklyn, and no one is checking my filters.
Couldn’t of written it better %1000 percent agree
Couldn’t have.
Not sure which organization you are referring to. But I met with one of them. I am very computer savvy. The point wasn’t to limit the parents access. It was to let the parents know what their kids can access on their phones, camera, tables, switch, PlayStation, xbox and this list goes on.
I walked away from the meeting, veu informed and worth every penny.
Same is with the school video presentation. I learnt a lot and it was worth it.
I think most parents are aware of what their kids can access. And if not, then have a technology awareness night that’s mandatory attendance for all parents, don’t force parents to pay $150 to be told what many of them already know!
You can also hand out pamphlets and booklets.
The point that the author is trying to make is that the very fact that parents are being forced to pay $150 on top of tuition and registration fees and everything else for a “kosher technology check” that they are not interested in, because someone came up with a smart idea of how to make a buck, is not the way to go, nor is this the way it should be done.
If school’s want this so much, they should take it off the tuition cost, not add an extra fee for something in the name of “Lesheim Shamayim”. There’s almost nothing Lesheim Shamayim when it comes to making money from something. It’s usually Lesheim Kiso.
I think that the Vaad should get involved in this and put a ban on this forced “kosher phone check and education”. We are not communist Russia. This isn’t the way to draw people closer to Hashem and ensure that their children won’t have access to technology. It’s actually guaranteed to have the opposite reaction, and push or turn people off a lot, to the point that they won’t want to have anything to do with technology awareness because it’s starting to become a point of coercion, not a way of educating and letting people make the choices that are right for them and their family.
sounds like you wrote the article lol and your holes in your arguments are allover. Tags whole org is one big coercion haence refusing to filter singles’ smartphones. “cause who gave you reshus to have it anyway”
I’m not the writer of the article.
your spelling also has holes in it.
TAG is voluntary, and you tell them what to disable and what to leave. It’s not coercion like being forced to pay someone to make sure your phone is really filtered. That is something completely different and not something that will really work imo.
Correct. I will follow my Rav. BTW, my Rav is more makpid then most of Lakewood. If not all of Lakewood.
TAG will filter anyine’s device. It doesn’t matter who you are, your marital status or anything else.
this is a different organization. you have to bring your devices to them and for a $125 fee they check them and then tell the school if you in compliance. its mandatory in some schools
The school should close up. Unacceptable to be in my private business. A school can have a rule that students can’t have access to unfiltered devices. But they have no right to be in my house, place of work. They aren’t god.
another form of overreach. perhaps they want a spy network on which hechser we eat? on who the parent talks to, or which shul the grandparents davened in. Is there no end? Time to fight this tyrrany with fire. All they accomplish is teaching parents to lie, as if they are truthfull. Reminds me years ago when we were told we must use a certain filter by the guy who owned the filter company. A total farce.
Anyone noticed the trend of the letters? All people look to do is complain! Did any complainers ever try to see the good? If you don’t like this technology thing, look for something good your school does do! Then write a letter pointing it out. Same for people complaining about school schedules, is there anything you ARE Thankful for? Care to share with the TLS forum?
It could just be that these are real issues that are coming up and have come up in the past, just in different forms.
The school’s overstepping their boundaries has been an issue that came up in the past. The tuition crisis and too many days off school have also come up in the past. People are bringing it up again because nothing has changed, and in many ways, is becoming more of a problem. The people writing the letters are trying to bring awareness and solve the problem.
It sounds like complaining but it’s also pointing to things that really ARE an issue.
Couldn’t agree more. In the goyish velt – good news is never broadcasted; we should do better and share appreciation
The better question to ask is why is man inserting himself between god and his people? Follow gods rules if you want if you do not he will know.
If we truly care about Kedusha, we women would do more to improve our Tznius. We all know that the first line of breaches of Tznius is the way we dress and the standards have become unacceptable.
Speak for yourself. You might be a Prutza, my family follows strict Tznius guidelines.
So true. And they only check the parents’ devices, even though there could be siblings that have devices that are unfiltered…. B”H my kids’ school does not do this, but they do try to enforce a no smart phone rule by school events, which is ridiculous, because a filtered smartphone is probably better than an unprotected flip phone (which I know there are parents who have).
Exactly. They also forgot my home computer. My job computer. What about the ones we use in the public library?
YOU GO TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY????
😂
I don’t live in lakewood, so I really don’t care about lakewood problems. Do you know how many people from Lakwood use the public libraries on a regular basis?
This is the biggest joke. Will the schools now inspect the food i buy to make sure it has a good hasgacha. Next thing you know you’ll be forced to show up to some organization with food items from your home to make sure it has a good hashgacha. This can be easily circumvented by going to the grocery and buying food with only the best hashgacha, and then going back to eating what you’ve been eating all along. If you don’t trust your parent body then dont accept them to your school. If you accepted them for who they are then trust then for who they are.
It’s interesting that you mention Hashgacha on food. Because the Halacha is Eid Echad Ne’eman. A women is believed in halacha that the food she cooks is 100% Kosher.
I think you mean to say that so too, it should be so with filters. But I think is a difference.
I once heard in a shiur from a kashrus expert that eid echad neeman is only to say what one actually knows – i.e. which hashgacha it is or what happened exactly with some mix-up , but he can’t pasken on a shaila that he doesn’t know the halacha. So too, with technology, there are details to be aware of – how something could be used, technical loopholes with various programs/apps etc, and not to connect and shmuz with ainom Yehudim – which is the worst thing,
and lashon hara and motzi shem ra out there, and in general, screen addiction. I guess the reason they charge $150 is to do a professional job. If you can prove their work is not adequate, or as someone claimed, not uniform for all, then that’s another question.
Filtering is an important thing, although it can get a bit technical on those things that you need/want, but I think everyone will agree it’s important.