As the parent of a 12-year-old (and three more coming after), yes -- the Internet scares me. I love all the things it makes possible for our family. But I'm also leery of the social mistakes that are so much easier for kids to make these days. I think back to my youthful missteps and shudder at the thought of having all of them captured for eternity on computer servers. Yikes.

It's why I'm such a big fan of PTOs and PTAs putting on Internet Safety Nights at their schools. Whether you do it with local law enforcement or by using our ready-made Internet Safety Night planning kit (which comes with a built-in expert presentation), it's a topic that many of your parents are actively concerned about. It's the most requested service topic among parents we've surveyed.

To me, building parent involvement at school, building a community around the school, then serving parents on school-related topics are three pillars of PTO and PTA work. Internet Safety Night fills that third bill perfectly.

We'd love to hear if your group has already planned or is planning anything around this key topic. Would you share your group's thoughts on addressing Internet Safety on our message boards?