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In this issue:

	General announcements
1.	Back to school
2.	A tale from the trenches
3.	This months golden nugget
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If you have any news you would like to share with others on this
list, or would like to submit a guest article, you may send them
for review possible inclusion at    mailto:news@surfsafety.com.
"A tale from the trenches" and "Golden nugget" will be regular
features of this news letter to which you can also submit articles
for consideration.
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General announcements
=====================

Welcome to the first issue of the SurfSafety.com news letter!  It
took a bit longer than anticipated but it's finally off the ground.
We appreciate your subscribing and hope you will find genuine value
here.  And, as always, if you do, why not forward it to a friend?

I will say this repeatedly throughout:  If you have ANY suggestions
for improvement please send them to us. mailto:news@surfsafety.com

Some of you who subscribed to this news letter may have done so
because our commerce engine at http://surfsafety.com/ was down and
would not allow you to order the book instead.  Please be assured,
this has been repaired and is now back to full operation.  Our
apologies if this caused you any inconvenience.

And now the news letter...
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Back to school
==============

Yes, it's that time again when parents gleefully frolic through the
isles of their favorite school supply stores to prepare the little
ones for yet another year of school.  Care free and delighted at the
prospect of a little peace and quiet around the house, right?

If only that were true.  Like many parents of school age children,
sending them off also brings the anxiety of not knowing what dangers
they may also be subjecting them to.  We need to put some measure of
trust in the school administrators but to what level can we hold them
accountable for the safety of our children on school grounds?  To what
degree should local, state and federal government and law enforcement
agencies meddle in school affairs?  And what level of responsibility
does the parent bear?

These are difficult questions that every parent should be concerned
with.  Few have easy answers.

For parents at Columbine, a rally of solidarity is merely the outward
manifestation of what will prove to be the real lasting solution which
will reap benefits far beyond just improving the safety at school.
Mark my words and remember you saw it here first when I say that
academic achievement will also surely go up.  Not just measurably,
dramatically!

Why?  Parental involvement.  Very simple.  It is a recurring theme
throughout my book "Child Safety-Net" which some have criticized as
too extreme.  Dead children in a school library murdered by fellow
students is too extreme.  No amount of parental involvement is too
extreme and may have very well prevented this tragedy if the parents
took that responsibility seriously enough to act upon it.  Too many
parents adopt a hands off attitude with respect to the raising and
educating of their children assigning responsibility where it does
not belong.

Raised parental involvement resulting from heightened awareness of
the consequences of not doing so is what will drive the changes
needed to make our schools a safer place to be and learn.  It all
starts in the home.  It saddens me to think that it takes such
tragedy before anyone takes it seriously enough to act upon it.

As you can probably tell, I am a bit right wing on this issue and
make no excuses for my views.  I have two daughters, both consistent
high honors students, who love to learn as proof.  It's no mistake,
nor do I believe they inherited a gene which gives them this love of
learning. It's hard work.  It's persistent involvement.  It's time
well spent which too many parents make excuses for not spending
leaving them out of touch and out of reach.

If we lose touch with our children how can we expect to spot the
danger signals when something is about to go dreadfully wrong?  Who
can we blame but ourselves?

As it relates to safe computing and the Internet, with my book I give
parents the tools.  But two ingredients I can not supply are love and
time.  That, only the parent can give.  The most I can hope to do is
continue to raise awareness in the hope it will motivate to action.

May you be motivated to action too, and motivate others to the same
action.
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Tales from the trenches/Golden nugget
=====================================

This months' issue combines the two because one inspired the other.

As many of us do, I received yet another unsolicited e-mail I found
offensive.  True to form, I set off in pursuit of the culprit.  In
my efforts to do so I learned that it was sent from an IP address
assigned by concentric.net.

As part of my regular complaint pattern, I sent e-mail to abuse@,
postmaster@ and hostmaster@concentric.net as well as all three names
at the domain to which I was directed to visit and cc'd my states'
Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, to make sure there is no mistake
that they understand I mean business.

Information like this passed on to your Attorney General fuels the fire
needed too pass legislation making it a criminal offense to solicit for
pornographic material on the web without first opting in and providing
proof of age.

Anyway, I received a reply from Concentric with a link I felt would be
of value to my subscribers, hence This Months' Golden Nugget.  It's at
http://www.concentric.net/support_center/abuse/  and has some good
general information about unsolicited e-mail (SPAM) and how to prevent
it.

Of course, the information found here and a great deal more can also be
found in Chapter 2 of my book Child Safety-Net and can be viewed online
for FREE by visiting http://surfsafety.com/ and going to the Table Of
Contents page.
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Well, that does it for this month.  If you spot something news worthy,
a new illegal drug name parents can add to their filter list, a hate
group with a domain name to filter, or would just like to share your
two cents worth, by all means, send them in.

Let's form such a tight knit community of caring parents that nothing
like the "Trenchcoat Mob "slips through the cracks ever again.

Be informed.
Be involved.
And be well.

Most sincerely,
Mark Brasche
Owner, New England Webmasters
Author, Child Safety-Net