Frightening

Today the world is a global village. Even as far away as Givat Zeev we find about about the good, bad and ugly [we prefer the first category and try to avoid the latter two]. This is an email I received from the greater New York- New Jersey area [don't try to figure out where exactly. New York and New Jersey are BIG places:)]. I am certain that this happens all over the place. Since people often associate anti-internet rhetoric with Charedim, I assure you that the writer of this email, a good friend, talmid chochom and yarei shomayim, doesn't wear a black hat and learned in Modern Orthodox yeshivas. This is not a Charedi vs. Modern issue but a "let's keep ourselves and children safe" issue.

There is a great family in our community - they are machshiv torah and chessed and they one teenage daughter who is very sought after as a babysitter in the neighborhood. The family is sort of yeshivish/chareidi and I believe she is in some bais-yaakov-ish high school. But the family is also seemingly "open" as far as internet access  is concerned (the kids have email accounts, cell phones etc). [She also has about six brothers who all learn in charedi chadorim and yeshivos].

When the girl comes over to babysit, she asks for access to our computer to help pass the quiet time (sometimes the kids are up when she is here so she can only use the computer when they are sleeping). We didn't think much of it since we trust her and we know her family well. I always made a point to check the internet history after the fact and thus far I have never seen anything alarming.. a lot of wasted time on some movies and other things [My note: If a Beis Yaakov girl is caught watching a movie that would be her last day in Beis Yaakov]... but nothing alarming or inappropriate....

...Until tonight.

When I looked tonight (when we got back from a family outing) I see that there are several searches on the internet for semi-inappropriate content (things that have to do with physicality between men and women). It seems that this led her to other more explicit content. This disturbing discovery possibly sheds light on some other incidents that we've had with her that have been a little suspicious.  We thought that in the past we've heard her on her cell phone with boys when we came into the house. She also locked the door with a chain so that we couldn't get in with our key and had to wait for her to open. 

There are other strange details to the story but I am not sure they are l'to'eles. The bottom line is - we have decided she will never babysit for us again. We clearly do not know her and do not trust her instincts after what we've seen. We also realize that we were waaayy to naive about letting them use the computer/internet...last time that will happen...(we hope).

 

Hashem Yirachem... It's really scary and chaval to see such a wonderful girl from such a great family involved in such schmutz... and be able to fake it so well!  

 

Sweetest friends!! Please remember this email. It could be anyone....