Israeli schools urge parents to immediately delete social apps from their children’s phones

On October 11, Beijing time, according to foreign media reports, several Israeli and Jewish schools have issued notices urging parents to delete social media applications such as Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) from their children’s smartphones to prevent them from seeing violent images and videos related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Some Israeli parents have been told to delete social media from their children's phones ahead of Hamas' expected release of hostage-taking videos over the weekend. The parents' association of a school in Tel Aviv, Israel, said it had been informed that videos of hostages "begging for their lives" would appear in large numbers on social media.

"We cannot allow our children to see these things. In addition, it is difficult and impossible to prevent all this content from being spread on social media. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation." The Israeli school wrote in a notice to parents.

School announcements for parents

Meanwhile, several Jewish schools in the United States have issued similar warnings, the Jewish News Agency reported. "It is unclear where the hostage video information to be released comes from," the report said. The principal of Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, USA, sent an email to parents urging them to tell their children to delete social media such as Instagram "immediately."

Notification content

Some parents posted on social media sites such as Aviva Klompas, co-founder of the nonprofit Boundless Israel, shared a message to parents from one school in an

Journalist Joanna Stern shared a post on X that included messages from the Jewish high school she attended and the local Jewish community center. These messages "advise parents to delete X and Instagram because bloody and misleading information will appear on these platforms." "Hamas reportedly plans to broadcast numerous hostage videos on these media outlets. Parents should discuss the dangers of these platforms and ask their children daily about what they see, even if they have deleted apps from their phones whose content remains largely unfiltered," the notice reads.