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I don’t understand. Everyone talks about how social media is asur, yet tons of Frum Yidden use WhatsApp on a day to day basis.
Whatsapp is enclosed; you can speak to and hear from only people whose phone number you have.
You should however, avoid groups containing anybody and everybody.
WhatsApp is different than your typical social media. It’s more like text messaging than Facebook.
“WhatsApp is enclosed; you can speak to and hear from only people whose phone number you have.“
That statement is false, if I know your number I can text you on WhatsApp
@coffee addict, so dont give out your number to people you dont know
Commonsaychel,
A spammer can type any number and save a name to it
I’ve had a few spam messages in WhatsApp
Coffee addict
So mark them as spammers and block them from your phone from ever spamming you again in the future
A spammer can text you without what’s app too
What’s the differenceWhatsap is used in my community to inform of times on minyonim, asking for men when a minyon is short, giving away items and other harmless things
If you have a WhatsApp capable device, it is absolutely imperative to also have a very strong filter to control what is accessible on said device outside of WhatsApp.
ujm, I respect filters. I tried relying on them with kids and it did not really work – they find ways to go around. Even when I established a multi-layered defense at router, computer, and cellular level – they would find a free WiFi or, as a last resort, claim that my filters interfer with their legitimate work on the computer. Then, they will peak over my shoulder to see what I do to open that helicke website they need … Constant warfare … Somehow, soon after getting kids out of schools and making them do serious work on their computers lead to them using computers responsibly without any filters. It is not because they “grew up” as some are of the age that others were during the warfare times. I do keep basic network filtering and safety options in google search on all devices to prevent silly stuff appearing in the search results.
You can text me on a regular phone number too if you know my number; i should have specified
AAQ’s point is well-taken. While every family needs to make their own decisions based on their beliefs and hashkafah, today’s kids run circles around their parents and will more likely than not find ways to circumvent most filtering or otherwise find that filters are dysfunctional in terms of blocking legit sites need for their work. We were fortunate that our kids grew up without ever getting hung up on what AAQ refers to as the “crazy stuff” and used computers responsibly and are now instilling the same values and practices in their own kids.
Avira > You can text me on a regular phone number
Define “regular”. If you have a thingy with an attached cord going into the wall – you can’t text it at all. I mean you can text but I won’t get it.
(again, same kids found my old one and, despite their internet skills, could not figure out why there is a cord attached to something that is similar to a phone).
Gadol > and are now instilling the same values and practices in their own kids.
I think that is the point. Again, there are things that need to be done in many cases, such as keeping computers, not phones, and in the open, etc, but it seems that kids seeing parents using computers for work, learning, good comms – even posting on CR! – is the most useful thing.
“Define “regular”. If you have a thingy with an attached cord going into the wall – you can’t text it at all. I mean you can text but I won’t get it.”
I don’t think that is true. I remember as a teenager that we could text home phone numbers and when the recipient picked up the phone, they were hear a computer voice reading the text. It was expensive but the option did exist. I’m not sure if it still exists but I’m sure there’s a way.
“You can text me on a regular phone number too if you know my number; i should have specified“
True, I was talking about from people outside the country
I’m sorry I should have specified
Another feature of Whatsapp is voice calling. I regularly use Whatsapp for voice calls to and from family in Israel. via WIFI or 4G, no phone charges.
You should however, avoid groups containing anybody and everybody.
You mean like an Internet message board?
The Wolf
MenachemFivenbirmbaum,
“I don’t understand. Everyone talks about how social media is asur, yet tons of Frum Yidden use WhatsApp on a day to day basis.”
WhatsApp is more akin to texting than social media, though its group chats have more advanced features than SMS/MMS, and users can post a “status” (series of images) that their contacts can view and respond to. WhatsApp is a FaceBook (“Meta”) property, so if you use WhatsApp, be aware that you are interacting with FaceBook. While messages sent and received in WhatsApp are encrypted, so FaceBook cannot directly read them, they do harvest all of the metadata surrounding your messages. They can see what numbers are in your groups, which you chat with and when, and since everyone shares their contact lists with WhatsApp to see statuses, they can connect your phone number to your name many times over, as well as your contacts. And if someone you know tags you in a picture on their own FaceBook account, they also know what you look like. So even if you never touch FaceBook itself, WhatsApp reveals you to the Zuckerberg. Fun!
All I know is that when the geeks staffing our firm’s 24×7 tech support helpline are unable to solve a problem, my default option is to call the grandkids
Always_Ask_Questions,
“I tried relying on them with kids and it did not really work”
I am not a fan of Google, but if you are already enmeshed in the Google ecosystem, their Family Link feature is really useful. For example, if you have a Chromebook for your child, you can:
1. Create a Google account for your child and enroll it in Family Link. You can then use the Family Link settings to completely lock down the Internet except for sites and apps that you explicitly allow.
2. On the Chromebook, sign on initially with your own account so it is the “admin” account that controls the device settings.
3. In Settings, go to “Manage other people”, turn off guest browsing (very important), and limit sign-ons to only accounts you specify (so they cannot create a new unmanaged Google account and sign in with it). Allow your child’s account to sign in, and any others you want (e.g., sibling accounts, their school accounts if they have).
4. Log in the child account, authorize the sign-in with your password, and s/he has a laptop that is locked down to your specifications.With these steps taken, I have not discovered a way to “break” the setup (so long as your child does not know your password!), but once Google thinks they are over 13, they can unenroll their account from Family Link. If they do this, you will get an email and can take whatever action you need to.
There are some pitfalls to Family Link – the white/blacklisting only works at the domain level, so you cannot allow/block specific Web pages within a domain (e.g., you cannot allow http://www.theyeshivaworld.com but then block the CR). The Debian Linux container available on newer chromebooks (crostini) cannot be used with Family Link. And it ties you and your child to Google, which harvests all of the personal information you give it for dubious uses. As children get older, they will also start to push on the boundaries set by Family Link, so you’ll have to maintain an ongoing dialog with them.
“my default option is to call the grandkids“
Wow! I never realized you were THAT old!
I think I see a common thread with the democrats on this site, they became democrats when the party was normal and just never left
As someone who avidly uses WhatsApp and yenner social media, there’s a huge difference between the two, but if you’re not careful, that distance can lessen.
If you’re on Facebook, reddit, YouTube, Twitter, GitHub, Orkut, Myspace, or whatever, you have little to no control over what content you’re seeing and who you’re seeing it from. Everything goes by “the algorithm” which claims to know your every thought and feeling and tailors an endless feed of content accordingly which can contain all sorts of random people and things. WhatsApp on the other hand is user controlled. You can only see content from the groups you’re a part of. There are no adds, and if someone posts something from a different group, there’s no link back to the source. So if one is not careful, they can absolutely get sucked into the same social media gehinnom by joining random groups and accepting every message. But the default is still a big wall around your personal stuff.
WhatsApp facilities and enables a great deal of loshon hora, rechilus and ms”r.
Avram, thanks, I tried family link also. I don’t fully recall, and wouldn’t repeat, how the kids were dealing with it.. if you are going this route, I had more successes with surveillance. If you don’t force them into dark approaches first, you can observe network traffic and see where they are going without causing any rifts. Knowing whether you have a problem is a big thing. Sometimes you can address the issue by talking with the kid without revealing your sources, or blacklisting.
Call grandkids!? You raised them well if they answer.. How about Whatsapping them .. when I encourage youngsters to call someone they say it’s a weird thing to do
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