LONNY GOLDSMITH
SttqfWriter
I
t is about a quarter to three
in the afternoon on Dec.
30, a regular mid-week day
on which kids across
the country are logged
on to America
Online.
Tucked away in
one of AOL's many
\_
,-'. ' 4 corners is the
Jewish Youth Chat.
On this particular
Tuesday, as many
as 44 Jewish kids,
ranging from third
grade to 18-years-old,
are talking junior high
school basketball, music
and trivia.
-„,.• One of the
online chatters is
from Farmington
Hills.
"My mom hates
that I'm in these chat
rooms," said 16-year-old
Heidi Levin, a junior at
North Farmington High
School. "I've only met two peo-
le online, and neither was a crazy
stalker — one in this chat (Jewish
Youth); the other in the BBYO chat
room."
Levin was online for a simple rea-
son: boredom stemming from a long
layoff from school.
"I happen to have met a couple of
people, but I'm not friends with them,"
she said. "Ninety-five percent of the
time I talk to friends that are online.
"It's wrong that kids turn to it to
make friends. One girl told me her
mom was taking AOL away and she
started crying because she wouldn't
have any friends without it."
With the increasing number of
computers available in school, the
online chat has given staff something
else to watch over.
"Chats are blocked, so the kids can't
use them here," said Hillel Day School
Director of Technology Jay Greenberg.
"The kids are only allowed to use them
if they are monitored, or for projects.
"We want the kids to have fun, but
it can't be unmonitored."
According to Greenberg, many of
Kids are learning the joys
of the Internet,
and how to meet people on it.
the students at Hillel have asked that
AOL be added to the extensive network
of computers set up for the kids to use.
"I can't block sites on AOL like I
can on the Internet with Cyberpatrol
(the Web site blocking program)," he
said. "AOL has a lot to learn when it
comes to doing things for kids along
this line."
The reason AOL is in demand at
Hillel is because of the number of stu-
dents who use it. According to eighth-
grader Ariel Gluckson, around 90 per-
cent of Hillel students have AOL
access at home.
"We have it because we can instant
message each other, and there are
buddy lists so we know when our
friends are online," said Hillel student
Jordan Weiss of he and his friends.
"We go to chat rooms, but not public
ones. Only private."
No matter where the students go
on the Web, most expect to see some-
thing they probably shouldn't.
"You have to not mind seeing some
bad language," said seventh- grader
Jordan Alter. "In every chat there is
going to be something disgusting.
Some things can be prevented, but if
you want to find some-
thing 'bad,' you can."
Alter feels that block-
ing some Web sites
because people feel there
is bad content is to block
some good sites.
At Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah in
Southfield, Rabbi
Avraham Cohen
says, they want
their students to
be computer-
savvy, not
Internet-savvy.
"I don't think it's
healthy for kids to be
allowed to have carte
blanche on the Internet.
It's not safe either," he said.
"There are many unsa-
vory places on the
Internet, and the nega-
tives outweigh the
positives."
Cohen feels, how-
ever, that having
parental control would
be useful, although it's
not always possible.
"My kids don't know the
first thing about the Internet," he
said. "Nor will they."
Caren Levine, director of media
and technology for the Jewish
Educational Services of North
America, said parents shouldn't be sur-
prised if kids look to cyberspace for
social contacts.
"The needs of kids are not so dif-
ferent from the needs of adults,"
Levine said. "They have the same
curiosities adults have.
"More often than not, talking on
the Internet is more chatty than
deep."
Levine pointed out that interaction
can come at different levels, ranging
from "Hi, how are you?" to a more
interactively intense meeting where kids
show more emotion, and tell more.
"There are some legitimate con-
cerns about meeting people over the
Internet," Levine said. "Bad meetings
get bad publicity, but good meetings
get none. There is a definite responsi-
bility among parents to know what
their kids are up to." ❑
1/9
1998
9