Marty Denzer/Key photo Teens can get information on just about anything simply by "surfing the net. " Unscrupulous individuals or companies often use typos, hidden codes or fraudulent websites, to link Internet users to pornogrophy, etc.

"We've learned since Columbine, learned ways to protect kids," said agent Jeff Lanza of the FBI's Kansas City office.

A program called "I-Safe" is being implemented in the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocesan elementary and high schools this fall. I-Safe was founded in 1998 as a prevention and education curriculum for educators and parents to promote Internet safety.

In the last few years, the I-Safe program has been launched in school districts from coast to coast, and in 2004, $10 million in federal funds were allocated to supply educators with I-Safe materials.

At a day-long seminar at St. Thomas More School, about 60 teachers, principals and guidance counselors listened and furiously scribbled notes as agent Lanza reviewed the issues and concepts of Internet safety.

One of the biggest problems with parents trying to safeguard their children while they use the Internet is computer savviness. Parents cannot teach computer safety to their kids when the kids know more about the Internet and how to use computer functions than their parents do, Lanza said.

Today's cyberworld closely parallels the physical world, he said. "There are inappropriate places and content to explore. It is important to know how to avoid and escape inappropriate locations. Bullying and hate can exist anywhere there is two-way communication. Physical safety and computer safety are equally important. Stranger danger is an important concept, but kids usually don't consider the consequences of Internet action."

Lanza questioned the teachers about how adults and children utilize the Internet, and came up with two sets of responses. While adults use the Internet more often for research, e-mail, online finances and retail purchasing such as E-bay, middle schoolers and teenagers tend to use it more for instant messaging, "blogs," (Web logs that are like diaries), chat rooms, celebrity searches, games and, sometimes, to download music illegally or visit pornographic sites.

The statistics are eye-opening, or "really scary, really scary," said Bridget Flanagan, principal of St. Thomas More School. An I-Safe survey of 20,000 middle school students taken during the 2003-2004 academic year, reported that 24 percent saw nothing wrong with chatting with a stranger on the Internet and 39 percent said they trusted those with whom they chatted. Ten percent were asked to meet someone they talked to over the Internet face-to-face, and 10 percent of those met them. Fifty-two percent of the middle school students said they had said mean or hurtful things about someone in a chat room or on a blog, and 16 percent had received mean or threatening messages. Forty percent of the students surveyed said they visited inappropriate sites, while others admitted downloading music illegally.

The I-Safe program uses a combination of educational tools, parent materials and community outreach, such as safe library cards to teach kids Internet safety. All materials are approved by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Another statistic cited by Lanza for the I-Safe program is that 60 percent of online teens have received e-mails or instant messages from perfect strangers, and 63 percent of those have responded. The I-Safe curriculum is geared to empower students to avoid situations with potential predators or escape them before the situation gets out of control.

"There is always a risk of meeting an online friend. People aren't always who or what they claim to be," he said.

Adults should learn Internet security also, Lanza said, because identity theft, the theft of personal identifying information including name, address, credit card and social security numbers which are then used to open new charge accounts, obtain loans or order merchandise, is the fastest growing crime in the country. More than 3 million cases of identity theft have come to light so far in 2005, Lanza said.

"Phishing" is another way to steal personal information, he said. Phishing is the use of deceptive e-mails and fraudulent Web sites which imitate legitimate companies to entice unsuspecting people to share Internet passwords or personal information such as credit card and social security numbers.

"Spam" e-mails make up about 83 percent of e-mails received on a daily basis, Lanza said. He cautioned teachers to educate students and parents not to open spam e-mails, because even though a person may immediately delete the message, opening it has sent an electronic confirmation to the sender that the e-mail address the spam was sent to is a genuine address, and that can lead to a deluge of spam, lost productivity due to the time spent deleting them, or worse - computer viruses, malicious codes, or Trojan horses. They may also contain hidden codes that will link the user to pornographic or malicious sites. According to Symantic, a software security company, viruses and worms hurt computers' operational capacities and can spread from program to program and from computer to computer through file sharing, downloads, and instant messaging.

Trojan horses are imposter files that claim to be something desirable but are in fact malicious codes, Lanza said. "Restrictions cannot be placed on the Internet because of free speech laws," he said. "In fact, simply 'google' the word 'porn,' and you'll come up with 6 million sites," he said.

The I-Safe curriculum will be a part of all the schools in the diocese this fall, said Judy Warren, diocesan Superintendent of Schools.

"I went to the Independent Review Board (the body that reviews allegations of sexual abuse in diocesan staff) not too long ago and brought up the issue of Internet safety," she said. "They put me in touch with I-Safe, who sent a representative to talk to the school office. We decided to implement the program diocesan wide this year. Hopefully the teachers will take what they learn back to the classrooms and then to the parents. Parents can then teach their children what is hurtful or harmful to themselves and others."

The I-Safe program is free to schools and teachers. For more information on the I-Safe program, click on www.isafe.org.

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