LANSING – St. Joseph County school systems may adopt the Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative, an Internet safety education program intended to protect children from online predators.

Attorney Gen. Mike Cox’s initiative, which he calls one of the most comprehensive Internet safety programs in the nation, aims to teach children to keep personal information private and to report inappropriate activity.

It’s designed for grades K-8 in three age-specific groups.

More than 80 of Michigan’s 552 public school districts are participating, Cox said, who wants to see it become part of a mandatory statewide curriculum.

Similar material is covered in existing programs in St. Joseph County schools including two hour-long safety seminars given by State Police officers, said a local principal.

“A lot of students in elementary school have knowledge about the Internet,” said Nicole Airgood, principal of Central Elementary School in White Pigeon. “I don’t think they understand the dangers (of the Internet) well enough.”

Airgood said she hopes to see the attorney general’s program come to Central this school year.

She said that such programs are necessary not only for children, but for parents as well.

“As adults, we don’t know as much as children about what’s going on online,” she said.

Three Rivers Community Schools Technology Director Scott Grace said that although he’s never dealt with a case of online predation personally, he has heard of cases elsewhere in the state.

“It certainly exists,” he said.

Even worse, Internet predation also carries a stigma of shame.

“Many instances of Internet predation never gets reported,” said Detective Lonnie Palmer of the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department.

“But if we had a program to take care of the issue, I’d expect those numbers to go up.”

Grace, who has a son in elementary school and two sons in middle school, said that the need for online safety education is becoming as necessary as the need for drug and alcohol education.

“It’s definitely in the press and on TV news more,” he said. “It’s on people’s plates now. We need to do something to prevent it.”

Grace and other officials in the Three Rivers school district are studying the feasibility of incorporating the program into their curriculum.

“We’re investigating how much time it will take up and take away from other subjects,” he said.

“We also need to find out the state’s standards and the benchmarks it wants covered on the topic.”

The program teaches students about common activities predators use to take advantage of children. It stresses that children should never give out information like phone numbers, addresses or where they go to school, and that they should report to the school or their parents if anyone makes them feel uncomfortable online.

The program has a series of short films for age-specific groups. Grades K-3’s presentation includes the video version of the popular book “Faux Paw’s Adventures in the Internet,” in association with the Internet Keep Safe Coalition.

Grades 4 and above watch a more mature, realistic video called “Predator,” a video provided by the California non-profit group i-SAFE Inc.

While programs like Cox’s initiative are important tools for predator prevention, some districts have taken their own measures to protect their students.

Sturgis Public Schools block entire Web sites that “don’t have much educational use,” said Technical Director Janene Kosman.

Sturgis also teaches a freshman focus class where teachers talk to students about Internet safety and e-mail security.

“We try to instill proper use of technology and try to keep reinforcing those standards,” Kosman said.

Kosman said that Internet misconduct is low in the Sturgis district. She heard only two cases last year involving inappropriate contact, both committed by students themselves.

Although Sturgis has no formal program dedicated to online safety, Kosman supports integrating one into the curriculum.

“I think there’s always room for more education,” she said.

Links to other online safety resources are available on the Three Rivers Community Schools Web site www.trschools.org.