Dear Karate-ka:

We are excited to announce that a member of Master Smith has partnered with i-SAFE America to help bring Internet Safety education to our communities. i-SAFE America, Inc. is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to educate and empower youth to safely and responsibly take control of their Internet experience. The i-SAFE program provides students with the awareness and knowledge they need in order to recognize and avoid dangerous, destructive, or unlawful online behavior and to respond appropriately.

The i-SAFE curriculum includes lessons for all grades from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. The Department of Justice has approved all lessons contained in the K-12 curriculum.

The integrated teaching and learning activities are age appropriate and vary from grade to grade. A sample of the topics discussed in the i-SAFE curriculum include the following.

Cyber Community Citizenship: Recognize that the Cyber community is as tangible as the student's physical community.

Cyber Security: Understand the principals of e-mail protocol, including the personal consequences involved with e-mail such as viruses, flaming, hate e-mail, etc.

Personal Safety: Understand how to recognize dangers and danger signs in online communications; how to employ techniques to avoid and/or respond assertively to a variety of dangerous situations.

Predator Identification: Understand the techniques used by Cyber predators to contact, communicate, entice and lure, entrap and exploit victims; how predators use chat rooms and students' screen names to gather information; how to recognize inappropriate situations and avoid becoming the victim of a predator. Law enforcement personnel usually teach this lesson.

Intellectual Property: Understand that there are acceptable legal and ethical behaviors related to information and technology.

Additionally, your children will have the opportunity to volunteer as i-SAFE Mentors and participate in community- and school-based events and activities aimed at increasing Internet Safety awareness.

We believe that this curriculum is necessary to protect and empower our students and hope that you can offer your support to this program by continuing the discussion of these topics at home. Should you have any additional questions, please contact Master A. Keith Smith at 630 208-2039.

For more information about i-SAFE visit www.isafe.org.