Hasidic School That Banned Leggings For Moms Orders Internet Filters, Too

By Sam Kestenbaum June 22, 2017

Weeks after establishing more stringent rules about modest dressing, a private girls school in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights is now requiring families to install internet filters on their home devices, including phones, if they want their children to enroll this coming fall.

Bnos Menachems sent out a letter to parents ahead of the upcoming school year, the local website Crownheights.info reported.

“Due to the ever growing dangers and complexity of the internet,” the letter stated, “Bnos Menachem school policy now expects assurance that all devices in a student’s home bear appropriate internet filters.”

The letter, signed by the Bnos Menachem Vaad, or council, emphasizes that this restriction includes devices that belong to siblings and parents, not only to students.

Installation of the filters is “a prerequisite condition for your daughters’ return to school in the fall,” the letter says.

The letter indicates that Bnos Menachem’s new requirement is a partnership with the internet filter company TAG.

TAG is one of a handful of “koshering” internet filter services that monitor and block explicit content such as pornography, or websites containing curse words, but they may also prohibit access to news, social media or video sharing sites.

Contact Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] or on Twitter,@skestenbaum

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

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