After reviewing several different Internet Safety Curriculums, there are several things that a variety of police, FBI and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children suggest parents can do to take an active role in keeping their child/ren safe on the internet.
1.  Talk to your kids; even when they don't want to listen. Start when they are young, going to the same sites with them, and discussing with them anything about the site or what they should do if they click on something and an inappropriate screen comes up - we emphasize in school to TELL A TRUSTED ADULT. This paves the way for a continuance of questions as they grow older, that will not seem as invading as if you just start asking them when they become teenagers.
2. Keep the computer in a well-trafficked area of your home. No computers in bedrooms; have it somewhere you can walk in at some point, and take an interest in what they are working on. This will help prevent inappropriate surfing as they get older. Never allow cell phones, or internet connected devices like iPads or laptops in the bedroom unless you continually walk in on them at odd times to make sure they are being used appropriately.  If you are worried about friends of your kids using your equipment, or your kids start shutting off the monitor or quickly switching things as you walk by, you can pull the plug and take it with you. The plug on a computer unplugs at both ends, and fits in a purse or the trunk quite easily. Have a laptop or iPad? Take it with you! It's portable, and the excuse that you needed it at work is a great one. Get a Best Buy or other Geek to program the parental controls and make logins with passwords for each member of the house. This will limit access for older students, and prevent unwanted viruses and issues that come with teenage downloading.
3. Check out internet sites on internet safety. Forewarned is forearmed. THE ANSWER IS EDUCATION! For you, as well as them!

Club Penguin was a site originally suggested to me during an iSafe seminar years ago, by the DARE officer teaching the course. At that time, it was popular, but privately owned. By the end of that year, it was so popular, it was bought out by Disney, and I can't think of a better company to make something safe and global for students.

I use Club Penguin to teach internet safety on a level they can understand.

Club Penguin embodies all of the options that a given site has to offer. Since I have a Club Penguin penguin, a free one, it instantly helps me teach how everyone can lie on the internet and be something other than what they say - you are supposed to be under age 13 to have a penguin. I cannot tell you how many teachers have a penguin for class or personal use. Certainly quite a few of the computer teacher I know. I teach the mantra "If you don't know the penguin, don't talk to the penguin."

Club Penguin offers safe chat servers. We discuss the difference between what you can do with a regular server vs. a safe chat server.

Club penguin allows you to become friends with other penguins, but it also allows you to block and report other penguins. We discuss how Club Penguin does it, what the differences are, what they look for to be reported, and how this translates to other sites, like email or other chat rooms or instant messaging.

We discuss inappropriate penguin moves and how to combat them. It's great for teaching the options they do not think about. If a penguin follows them, log out, log back in and go to a different server. Impossible to track. They can quit off the internet, or hit the back button - both great for handling accidental trips to inappropriate sites. They can also shut off the computer - something they don't think of until it's pointed out to them.

Club Penguin is a site they can get a penguin for free without paying, but has parts that are only accessible when they pay. It allows for a discussion of not only what the extensions mean (.org, .edu, .com) but also the commercial aspect of the internet.

I have found a majority of students in our school have/pay for a penguin, and I have not found a better tool to use to teach them "the ways of the internet."

I have had to create many other blog posts in the course of my studies at National-Louis University, working toward a Master's Degree in Technology in Education. Here is a link to them at blogspot.com.

Don't forget to read my first posting here on TeacherWeb about Second Life!

As the internet becomes more user driven, with users creating, uploading and getting information from each other, second life sites become more popular, and a way to connect to other people everywhere. Thanks to Nintendo, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, players have been connecting to each other to play games all over the world.  It's no surprise that this carries over to the internet, with online gaming becoming more popular.  It's certainly less expensive, only needing a connection.  Sites allow you to create a visual representation of yourself, an avatar, to move about a virtual world.  These sites can be simple, for kids, like Club Penguin, Millsbury and even Webkinz.  The intermediate sites are geared more toward fantasy gaming, like Warhammer, Tolkein's Middle Earth, Maple Story, Runescape, even Pirates of the Caribbean.  These games usually also require you to download the interface program to your computer, and launch it when you want to play, and you get more features when you pay a subscription. Yet the kids sites usually have this feature, too. Then there's the top of the line, Second Life and Entropia Universe.  Both not only want you to download the interface, but there is a direct correlation between the currency of the game and our currency.  You can convert dollars into the money of the game, and if you make money in the game, withdraw it in real life.  Second Life mimics our world, in appearance.  However, like our world, caution must be used; there are places not everyone would want to go.  Yet for those of us in the technology teaching field, it is interesting to note that ISTE has an island in Second Life.  The possibilities seem limitless.  Your avatar, which in this world can look just like you, can go to the auditorium on the ISTE island, sit down, and watch a presentation.  The presentation can be something as simple as a powerpoint, or a youtube video.  It can be a teacher, like me, giving the presentation through the chat feature.  a  "bot" can hand you notes about the presentation, and you can chat back for discussion.  The teacher can be anywhere, just as the students can come from anywhere in the world.  It is a glimpse of what teaching in the future can be.  Check out some of the sites in the links on the "Second Life Links" page on this site.