Steve is the founder of Shomerli. From the observant community of Côte-des-Neiges (Montreal), he spent a decade in cybersecurity before dedicating his work to the halakhic protection of Jewish households.
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According to an OFCOM study published in 2024, nearly three in four families in observant communities were involuntarily exposed to inappropriate content in the past six months. This number should stop us. Not out of alarmism — but because of halacha.
73%
of families in observant communities report involuntary exposure to inappropriate content in the past 6 months.
OFCOM Online Safety Report, 2024
The classical obligation of Shmirat Einayim — "guarding one's eyes" — is not a modern innovation or a Chassidic chumra. It traces back to the Talmud, is codified by the Rambam, and is treated as both a positive (asseh) and negative (lo taasseh) commandment by most decisors.
The Talmud in Berachot 12b derives the obligation from the verse "v'lo taturu acharei levavchem v'acharei eineichem" — "and you shall not follow your heart and your eyes" (Bamidbar 15:39). The verse places the eye before the heart in the chain of desire: vision is the gateway, the heart is what is protected.
The Rambam's language is precise: geder chazak, "a strong barrier." Not a pious intention, not an inner resolution — an external structure that prevents the eye from resting where it should not.
Three characteristics make the internet halachically distinct from all prior challenges:
First, the danger is without warning. A benign search, a forwarded link, an ad injected into a news page — exposure is involuntary.
Second, the danger is distributed. Where formerly the "doubtful place" was localized, today it is everywhere — in the pocket of every family member, at all hours.
Third, the danger is progressive. Algorithms optimize for retention with increasingly stimulating content each session.
Based on the Chofetz Chaim, Shemirat Ha'einayim 3The barrier is not a pious stringency. It is the condition of possibility for the obligation. Without it, the eye has no chance.
Three arguments converge to make the filter a strict obligation, not merely a chumra:
First, the halacha of v'nishmartem me'od le'nafshoteichem — "be very careful with your souls" — is traditionally extended by the poskim to spiritual dangers as well as physical ones.
Second, the Rambam's concept of geder chazak makes the barrier itself a constitutive part of the obligation, not an optional addition.
Third, the cost-benefit argument that once justified not requiring a filter has become obsolete. Modern filters allow unblocking in under 30 seconds for legitimate needs.
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Installing a filter is not an admission of weakness — it is a clear-eyed recognition of the real environment in which our families live in 2026. The Rambam does not assume a perfect man who would never need a barrier. He assumes a real man, whose eye seeks, and who must organize his world so that halacha remains practicable.
This is, at its core, what Shomerli does: rebuild the Rambam's geder chazak at the scale of the modern family.
Comparative analysis of contemporary poskim positions on the obligation to filter the internet.