Rabbi Gil Student provides the following links and discussion:
R. Mordechai Willig in this week’s TorahWeb, invoking R. Eliyahu Dessler’s concept of nekudas ha-bechirah — a point of choice (link):
Many rabbonim, including myself, have dealt with marriages threatened by a wife’s discovering her husband’s viewing of internet pornography. One who believes that otherwise scrupulously observant Jews, ordained Rabbis, or Torah educators do not make the wrong choice on this matter is simply mistaken.
Some rabbonim have, therefore, advocated a ban on the internet. Such a ban may be impractical or above our point of choice. Yet we dare not trivialize the significant danger the internet presents, or limit our acknowledgement of the danger to our children. The internet and the evil inclination form a potentially lethal combination for all.
See also this recent article in Mishpacha (link):
“A computer is not a toy,” [R. Leib Kelemen] says. “It is a tool, like an electric saw. Ablanket ban on home computers is as foolish as a blanket ban on electric saws. But it is just as foolish to leave an electric saw plugged in, out in your living room where there are children. Chinuch is all about teaching our children how to use life’s tools. We must know when to teach our children to use each of life’s tools, and how to teach them. That requires daas Torah.”
A prominent rabbi and thinker consulted by Mishpacha feels that “there is no force stopping the Internet from being global — it is far too useful a device. It is one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind. Although there are those in klal Yisrael who think that they will be able to keep the Internet out of their homes and lives, they must realize that it will never go away. A person must learn to adapt. The way to win the war of the Internet is not getting rid of the Internet itself. How can we?”
