Exposed and harmed: New disturbing findings presented to the Minister of Communications reveal that there has been a steep increase in the exposure of Israeli children to offensive content on the Internet, cell phones and social networks. An expert committee that collected the data submitted a series of recommendations to the Minister of Communications, including limiting the age of children and filtering content.
The inter-ministerial inspection team appointed by the Ministry of Communications included representatives from the Ministries of Justice, Education, Health, Welfare, National Security and the Ministry of Communications. Organizations, associations, media companies and various representatives appeared before the team, which led to the formulation of the recommendations and the writing of the report.
The committee also found that since Black Sabbath there has been a worrying increase in the exposure of children to offensive content. A survey conducted on behalf of the National Headquarters for the Protection of Children on the Internet revealed that approximately 63% of children and youth in Israel are exposed to particularly difficult images and videos, which include incitement, division, the use of blunt language, and images of dead and injured people. The team also pointed out that in recent years the age of children exposed to the net has been getting smaller, when proper content filtering has not been carried out so far, especially to prevent children and teenagers from being exposed to difficult content.
The team proposed to establish an up-to-date standard for free content filtering that will be offered by the authorized providers to subscribers and will be based on an applet that will be installed on the children's devices. It was also recommended to re-examine the definitions of the law and the definition of the phrase "offensive content", conduct a national campaign and expand information on the issue of online vulnerability for parents and minors, make information accessible to parents and children on a dedicated website, update the recommendations for the minimum age of use of mobile devices, educational programs in schools that will be implemented during each the school year, and improving the activity of the National Headquarters for Child Protection online.
"The children and youth spend a lot of time using and watching networks on their mobile devices, and a significant part of their social and emotional lives today is conducted on the phone screen," said the Minister of Communications, Shlomo Karai, "besides the many advantages of the Internet, which enables progress, technological development and reducing social gaps, it is It is also an open door to diseases and invites real danger to our children. Together with the professionals in the other government ministries, we will work to implement the recommendations as soon as possible to make screening tools available to every parent for the safety and well-being of Israel's children."