Dear Parents:

Recent news stories have made us all aware how sexual predators use the Internet to entrap and victimize children. As part of President Bush’s Helping America’s Youth initiative, we want to reinforce to parents, educators, youth leaders, and law enforcement officials that you don’t have to be a computer expert to protect a child from this growing threat. If children learn early to safeguard their personal information and to keep far away from Internet strangers, they will not become victims of this frightening epidemic.

As community members, we can and must work together to ensure that all children receive this urgent message. I encourage all adults to teach children the basic principles of online safety that are found in this book. Thank you for your commitment to our shared priority of protecting children everywhere.