As Virginia's schools prepare to incorporate internet safety lessons across all grade levels this fall to satisfy a landmark 2006 state law, educators are looking to schools that piloted web-safety curricula this past school year for guidance.

Each of the state's 134 school systems is free to integrate the online safety program in its own way, and most districts have formed committees of administrators, teachers, librarians, and parents to lay the groundwork for the nation's first internet safety requirement.

Media specialists from across the state said the lessons will vary according to grade level—but as students use the internet at school and at home, it will be critical to discuss the consequences of divulging too much personal information online, they added.

"Once [information is] on the internet, it's not like it's posted on a bulletin board, because you can't take it back. ... It never goes away, and we [have to] make sure they understand that," said Charlie Makela, supervisor of libraries for the Arlington County Public Schools and a former library media specialist for the Virginia Department of Education. "Students need to think about what they're doing before they click that ‘post' button."

Pilot programs were launched in several Virginia districts during the 2007-08 school year, and officials said students—even children in second and third grades—proved to be web savvy but lacked the basics of identity protection online.

In the 18,000-student Arlington County school system, the pilot program focused on third-grade classes.

"We had a simple question [for students]: Could your information be used to track you down?" Makela said.

Although many third graders could identify unauthentic eMail messages, Makela said safety tips would be crucial for a generation that spends hours on the web every day.

State school officials said they would not mandate a certain curriculum, but Tammy McGraw, the state's director of educational technology, said many districts would use animated features with pop-culture icons—such as the cartoon Pokemon—to grab elementary students' attention.

Virginia's youngest students will learn the basics of online safety, she said. When chatting online or creating a profile on a social-networking web site, students will be urged not to submit their last names, addresses, phone numbers, or any other information that could help an online predator track them in the community.

"It is out moral and ethical responsibility to make sure our children are protected," McGraw said, adding that the mandate is not meant to scare students away from using the web regularly. "We want them to understand that the 'net is a very important and valuable tool for them."

State and county-level officials said internet safety would be taught at all grade levels but would be emphasized in the fifth and eighth grades in particular. In fifth grade, they explained, students are on the verge of entering a larger, more social community of friends and classmates in middle school—and as eighth graders preparing for high school, a firm understanding of safe online practices could help students identify predators and help avoid cyber bullying.