iCanHelpline is where schools and districts can call or email to get help in resolving problems that surface in social media – problems that threaten students’ safety such as cyberbullying, impersonation, harassment and sexting. This is a service for school and district personnel, so we ask that individuals seeking help with a social media issue ask their school to contact us so we can all work together.
As the first step in developing a national helpline, iCanHelpline was piloted, with an independent evaluator, in California, Georgia and Washington State during the 2015-’16 school year as a joint project of California-based #iCANHELP and Net Family News Inc., national nonprofit organizations with more than a decade and a half of experience in education, student leadership and Internet safety.
In the spring of 2016, this work led to the formation of a new school-serving 501c3 nonprofit organization, The Net Safety Collaborative, founded and directed by Anne Collier of Net Family News. TNSC and #ICANHELP, its sister nonprofit organization, will continue to collaborate in growing students’ safety and digital leadership and schools’ positive climate and culture.
We’ve learned a lot. From working with schools and getting advice from people in government, business, education, and the nonprofit sector over the past year, we’ve learned that the best way to provide this important service to schools sustainably and economically over the long term is through low-cost annual subscriptions that will never exceed $300/school. We will be able to keep costs down as the number of schools using our service grows.
The people behind the helpline
- Donations welcome! Click here to support the helpline.
- The helpline was piloted with generous support from Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Twitter, Yahoo and the Digital Trust Foundation.
- iCanHelpline in the news:
- School Library Journal, 9/21/15
- EducationDIVE, 8/26/15
- Yahoo! Policy blog, 8/26/15
- eSchool News, 8/25/15
- San Francisco Examiner, 5/31/15
- ShapingYouth.org, 5/19/15