Several Israeli schools are urging parents to delete social media apps from their children's smartphones to prevent them from seeing violent and disturbing visuals related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, CNN reported. A Tel Aviv school's parents association warned parents to remove apps like Instagram and TikTok, the report said.
“We cannot allow our kids to watch this stuff. It is also difficult, furthermore – impossible – to contain all this content on social media. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation,'' according to the parent's association.
David Lange, who runs the Israeli advocacy group Israellycool, posted a screenshot of a message from his daughter's school on X.
''Dear Parents, We have been informed that videos will be sent soon of our abductees begging for their lives. Please remove the Tiktok app from the children's mobile phones. We cannot afford our children to watch this,'' the message read.
Several schools in the US and UK have also issued similar warnings.
''It has come to our attention that deeply disturbing videos, including footage of hostages, may be spread across social media in the near future,'' a principal at a public school in New York City said in an email this week, as per NBC News.
''These videos and images will likely be shared through Instagram, TikTok, and other social media outlets. We strongly encourage you to consider having your children delete these apps for the time being, putting up additional parental controls, and/or assisting them in exercising extreme discretion around social media,'' the email read.
Several horrific clips showing injured and dead civilians and civilian abductions have already been shared online. More so, hundreds of fake and misleading videos are also circulating on social media. On Tuesday, the European Union warned Elon Musk of ''penalties'' for disinformation circulating on X amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Meanwhile, Hamas has warned that it will post murders of hostages on social media if Israel targets people in Gaza without warning. Israel says about 150 of its citizens are being held hostage, including women, children, and the elderly.
