SMITHFIELD — The issue of the perils facing uninitiated young people on the Internet has become something of an avocation for Lawrence P. Filippelli, the principal of Scituate Middle School, who will deliver another lecture on the subject Dec. 6 at Smithfield High School.

“I’ve been doing a lot of presentations around the state on Internet safety, Filippelli said in an interview last week. “It’s basically teaching parents strategies on keeping kids safe on line.”

Daniel P. Kelley, principal of Smithfield High, who announced Filippelli’s pending appearance, said Internet safety has become “a hot topic” in recent years.

“The Internet has opened up a new world which includes sex, violence, cyber bullying and online predators,” Kelley said.

Kelley mentioned the case of an Exeter resident who was arrested last month on drug and weapons charges. Officers who searched his trailer discovered that he had two Web pages on MySpace.com, a site accessed by millions of young people. The police charged that he had used MySpace.com to lure teenage girls to his trailer to smoke marijuana with him.

In North Kingstown, a candidate for School Committee withdrew from the race in September after her entries on MySpace.com raised character issues. The woman had mentioned sex and drinking on her posts. She said she was quitting the race for personal reasons, and said her family had been threatened.

Filippelli, who is also an adjunct professor at the Johnson & Wales Graduate School, said that technology “has always been kind of another strand of mine career-wise.”

He said that “way back” when he first got involved in education he worked with the Providence School Department’s data center.

“When I did my doctorate, it was all around educational technology and teachers using technology, strategic planning, so it has always been an interest.”

Filippilli said that when a student at his school became involved with problems on MySpace.com recently he thought he should look into the Web site.

“I really started getting into MySpace to see what it’s all about. It’s a very, very important issue. Unfortunately, I think some parents, not all, don’t think it is as important as it really is.”

Filippelli recently presented his views at a national middle school conference.

As for local parents, he said, “I show them exactly what’s out there and how their kids can be targeted. And I show them real simple sites like Google Earth and real estate data bases that can be used” to target youngsters.

He said he is often surprised at the turnout when he delivers his lectures around Rhode Island.

“The turnout depends on the area,” he said. “I did one at Mount St. Charles a couple of weeks ago and had about thirty people. In West Warwick, you would grab fifty. Then I went to places like Pawtucket and found nine. It always amazes me how many people are not at the presentation, rather than who’s there. They don’t know just how important it really is.”

The lecture on Dec. 6 will run from 7 to 9 p.m. in the auditorium of the high school.