June is Internet Safety Month and the NetSmartz® Workshop wants to congratulate you on your work to educate, engage, and empower kids about online safety. As you take this month to celebrate, I encourage you to make further use of our resources in order to communicate the importance of making safer online choices.

Start a dialogue with your children by co-signing the NetSmartz Safety Pledge, allowing room for them to share their thoughts on Internet safety as well. Then, get cooking with the NetSmartz Teachable Recipes, designed to help make Internet safety more "digestible." Showing interest in your children's online lives will help increase their confidence to make safer choices when faced with online risks such as predators, cyberbullies, and scammers.

Throughout the summer, NetSmartz will be conducting our Internet safety presentations for youth and adults allover the country; make summer an opportunity to spark a commitment to Internet safety for your own community. I urge you to use NetSmartz Internet safety presentations at local festivals and special community events geared toward families. Summer camps and libraries are often seeking information on safety issues, so offer them the benefit of your expertise. It is our combined efforts that will make Internet safety a year-long priority.

Join us in our recognition of Internet Safety Month!

Herbert C. Jones, Vice President

External Affairs

Take a pledge this summer with your kids!

Did you know you can use uncooked spaghetti noodles to help your child understand the importance of getting support from trusted family members? Or that salty cookies can represent the kind of unsavory Internet users your child should learn to avoid? Discover all of this and more with the new NetSmartz Teachable Recipes. By combining basic Internet safety lessons with culinary fun the Teachable Recipes make safety interactive.

Get cooking with your kids today!

The above words introduce the Congressional Internet Safety Resolution which designates June 2008 "National Internet Safety Month" and reinforces a national commitment to Internet safety. The NetSmartz Workshop honors that commitment while reflecting on more than 7 years of working with communities to educate them about online safety issues. Internet Safety Month offers us the opportunity to look over our timeline, celebrating our history and current progress, while simultaneously challenging us to evaluate our content in order to create richer and more innovative materials.

We would like to invite you to be a part of the evaluation process by joining us on June 18^th for the inaugural meeting of the NetSmartz Internet Safety Task Force. The task force will contribute to the assessment and development of new NetSmartz content. We are seeking input from leaders who are experienced in the fields of education, social service, and other related areas. If you are interested, contact Jaida Bender at jbender@ncmec.org or 703-837-6332 for more information.

The Monterey County District Attorney's Office has partnered with the FBI to bring NetSmartz to elementary-aged students in their community. As part of this initiative, Monterey's Salinas City Elementary School District has integrated the bilingual program into its curriculum. Using NetSmartz, educators hope to teach students how to recognize online risks and to empower them to be safer when going on the Internet.

Since the beginning of 2008, the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Enforcement Unit has presented the NetSmartz Workshop program to over 2,200 students, parents, and community members within the state. Thanks to their outreach efforts, the children, tweens, and teens of South Dakota will "UYN" when going on the Internet!

Would you like to be featured in the next issue of NetSmartz News? E-mail information about your Internet safety activities, subject line "NetSmartz News/EEE," to newsletter@netsmartz.org.

The First Issue

As a program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), the NetSmartz Workshop shares their vision of a world made safer for children through the cooperative efforts of parents and guardians, educators, and law-enforcement agencies. For the past eight years, NetSmartz has created quality interactive, educational materials designed to help youth and adults learn about Internet and real world safety.

School by school, we have established a presence in all 50 states, providing communities with the necessary resources to address the constantly changing cyber landscape and the new risks that these changes present. In order to keep you up-to-date with these shifting trends, we are publishing NetSmartz News, a quarterly newsletter which discusses current Internet issues and their possible risks to our children. Recent news headlines have convinced me that our newsletter could not have begun at a more appropriate time.

Recently, six Florida teenagers filmed themselves beating a classmate; it is alleged that they planned to post it online in retaliation for comments that the victim made on a social networking site. Although incidents rarely escalate to this level, it has called national attention to one of the most pressing Internet safety issues—cyberbullying. According to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, one-third of teenagers report that they have been the targets of cyberbullying. Children, parents and guardians, educators, and law-enforcement agencies have all been affected by this problem and are looking for effective methods to halt its spread. This issue of NetSmartz News offers you a place to start.

NetSmartz works to educate, engage, and empower communities about on- and offline safety risks because we believe that real change happens when communities work together to resolve their problems. I invite you to be part of the solution.

Herbert C. Jones, Vice President

External Affairs

Ryan Halligan. Jeffrey Johnston. Megan Meier.

These are children whose names have become inextricably linked to the issue of cyberbullying. Their pictures and stories have been plastered across newspapers, magazines, YouTube videos, and Web memorials denouncing cyberbullies and mourning the victims. Their families have taken their stories public in order to fight this growing trend among adolescents. Although these names represent a minority of victims who committed suicide due, at least in part, to cyberbullying, there is a multitude of other victims whose stories have not been told—children who continue to face cyberbullying everyday. Who is best suited to tell their stories?

They are best suited to tell their own stories, and their stories can make a difference. It seems so easy to trade insults over IM (instant messaging), write mean messages on someone's social networking page, or trash-talk while gaming because children are generally unconcerned with consequences. Perhaps this is why cybebullying is so widespread. Ryan Halligan, Jeffrey Johnston, and Megan Meier are all startling examples of what happens when people do not consider the consequences of their actions.

Ignore the message. Don't ignore the problem.

NetSmartz^® advocates three simple rules for children facing cyberbullies. These rules can prevent cyberbullying from escalating, and can also prevent the victims from becoming cyberbullies themselves.

1. Don't respond to the message.
   
2. Save the evidence.
   
3. Tell a trusted adult.
   

Watch the NSTeens video, Terrible tEXt, to see these rules in action.

One vital lesson NetSmartz wants children to learn is to ignore the message, not the problem. As a well-meaning adult, you have an ideal opportunity to step in and encourage children affected by cyberbullying to speak out and fight this kind of victimization.

Educate. Engage. Empower.

Educate children about cyberbullying.

• Teach them about what is considered cyberbullying and what isn't.
  
• Make sure they understand the possible consequences of cyberbullying.
  

Engage children in a cyberbullying dialogue.

• Take it seriously! Sometimes sticks and stones matter, so have them discuss their feelings about cyberbullying.
  
• Let your children tell you about their experiences online; Internet safety experts can't tell their stories better than they can.
  

Empower children to lead the fight against cyberbullying.

• Give them tips that focus on prevention such as not posting personal information or provocative photos that someone could use against them.
  
• Encourage children to start an awareness group at school or online to educate their peers about cyberbullying.