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iCanHelpline announces low-cost subscriptions for schools

February 15, 2017 By ICanHelpline

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 15, 2017

Media Contact: Anne Collier, 650.458.7948, anne@netsafetycollaborative.org

ICANHELPLINE.ORG, WHICH HELPS SCHOOLS DELETE CYBERBULLYING, ANNOUNCES LOW-COST SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR SCHOOLS NATIONWIDE

Schools Signing Up by June 1 for the $300/Year Subscription Will Get Help Service through June 2018; Discounts for Full-District Subscriptions

Seattle, WA—The nonprofit Net Safety Collaborative, creator of the U.S.’s first social media helpline for schools, has launched a new subscription service for schools and districts nationwide. Schools can now sign up for the 2017-’18 school year at the low rate of $300/year per school (discounts available to districts subscribing for all their schools). As an “early bird” bonus, schools and districts signing up by this June 1 will receive social media help for the rest of this year as well as the full 2017-’18 school year—an extra 4 months.

What schools get for their $300:

Toll-free phone and email access to help when social media incidents happen
Research-based social media advice for smart, restorative incident response
Help with navigating apps, reporting abuse and working with students to resolve problems in social media
Assistance in getting abusive content deleted through the helpline’s contacts at Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Kik, Tumblr and other services.

“Our 2015-’16 pilot showed that we’re meeting a long-standing need of schools on the intervention side of the cyberbullying issue: we help get harmful content deleted,” said TNSC Executive Director and helpline founder Anne Collier. “The helpline also strengthens prevention by growing communication, social media competency and restorative responses in school communities.”

Upon signup, school or district personnel can call iCanHelpline toll-free on school days at (855) 997-0409 or email anytime via help[at]icanhelpline.org. Links to emergency and specialized help services and school social media resources are available to everyone, 24/7, at icanhelpline.org by clicking on “Resources” at the top of any page. The service is made possible through TNSC’s partnerships with social media services. For more, click to https://socialmediahelpline.com.

About TNSC: iCanHelpline.org is a project of The Net Safety Collaborative, a Seattle-based national 501c3 nonprofit organization that aims to increase students’ safety by helping schools delete cyberbullying and grow kindness online and offline. TNSC collaborates with California-based national nonprofit #ICANHELP (icanhelpdeletenegativity.org) to grow students’ digital leadership and awareness of their vital role in effecting positive change online and in school. iCanHelpline was piloted with independent evaluation in 2015-’16 with support from Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Twitter, Yahoo and the Digital Trust Foundation.

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True school safety (in W. Va.)

February 15, 2017 By ICanHelpline

It’s Kindness Week, and there’s probably no greater kindness than what’s being demonstrated in Morgan County, W.V., where great need is being met with great cooperation. County residents have created a web of youth-focused programs supporting kids in and out of school. One reporter writing about it called this web a “network of compassion,” and it’s needed in Morgan County, where 70% of the young people now live in poverty. In 2015, that figure was 60% and a decade ago it was 30%.

W.V. classroom photo — “Mr. Gary,” students and principal Dudley Cable of Warm Springs Intermediate School

In the only state in the U.S. that’s losing population, schools are struggling with a dwindling tax base, increasing unemployment, growing heroin abuse and a youth mental healthcare system in crisis. But in Morgan County, which has seen some of the worst of these conditions, all parts of the youth-serving ecosystem – from schools to social services to law enforcement to juvenile justice – are measurably turning the crisis around in a “countywide experiment in compassionate care [that’s] holistic, affordable, and replicable,” reported Pam Kasey in West Virginia Focus magazine. “And it’s gone on long enough that we can just start to see the difference it’s making.”

“At the hub of it all,” says Gary McDaniel, a clinical social worker for Morgan County’s schools who has been working on growing this web for over a decade, “is relationships.” Relationships between people especially, but also roles, skill sets and programs – all about serving children. When he was asked if this comes from some sort of county-wide vision or game plan, he said no, not really. It comes from “a philosophy that’s prevalent in the world of clinical social work.” It’s called ‘Ecosystems Theory.’ I’m not just helping kids one at a time,” McDaniel said. “I’m looking at a community and what it does well and what it can do better and how all of it comes to bear on supporting a kid I’m working with” – nutrition, family, medical care, school, etc. All the parts are equally deserving of attention.”

For examples of the nodes in this network of care – in and out of school – click to this blog post at NetFamilyNews.org.

iCanHelpline subscribers are welcome to email us their stories of school and school-serving programs that really work via info[at]icanhelpline.org.

What’s a social media helpline?

February 14, 2017 By ICanHelpline

The U.S. has many fine, well-established hotlines and helplines designed to help with specific social problems (dating abuse, depression, domestic violence, etc.) or support vulnerable populations (such as LGBTQ youth). This helpline is about the online expression of those social problems and types of victimization: usually called “abusive content,” the kind of content that typically violates social media apps’ and services’ Terms of Service. The most common kind young people face is harassment or cyberbullying.

People using devices around a big table One way to think of the difference is, traditional helplines help with what’s happening (or being experienced) offline; Internet helplines like ours help with what’s going on online. If people call us about offline issues, we refer them to the specialized help their seeking at traditional helplines (here, in our Resources section, is a list of the U.S.’s top hotlines and helplines for all kinds of offline issues).

What schools report
Having said that, it’s important to add that research shows that there’s a great deal of overlap between what we see in social media and what’s happening in everyday life. True for everybody, it’s especially true for young people. The problems schools report to iCanHelpline are typically relational problems in the school community that are expressed online in the form of texts, tweets, comments, images and videos. Sometimes they’re expressed verbally or physically on campus during school hours; sometimes they’re expressed online on campus; and sometimes they’re expressed online off campus after school hours. (The days of relational issues having clear lines between on campus and off campus or between online and offline are over.)

So there’s the relational issue itself and the visible expression of it online. The latter is what an Internet, or social media, helpline is designed to help with. We can actually be a big support to school administrators dealing with the relational part by helping to remove the hurtful visible expression of it. This content – which can range from being mean to extremely embarrassing to demoralizing or even criminal – can lead to emotional harm, physical fights, threats of violence, lawsuits and worse. A social media helpline can’t resolve the relational issues but it can help get the visible evidence of it deleted so that school staff, students and parents seeking relief from the drama or harm can help restore calm and safety so the relational issues can be resolved.

‘The real-time, real-life reality TV show’
As one educator put it, “Once the content is down, there’s nothing to copy, paste and share, fight over or gossip about. The real-time, real-life reality TV show’s over.” Defusing and disarming gets everybody closer to restorative solutions. Which means people can focus more on teaching, learning and constructive interaction. This can have tremendous positive impact on school climate and culture.

iCanHelpline is one of only a few Internet-native help services in the U.S. and the only one specifically serving youth (through their schools). It’s one of many youth-serving Internet helplines in Europe, Australia and New Zealand (more on that here). Ours is modeled after the UK’s Professionals Online Safety Helpline because we serve school personnel. Along with all Internet helplines around the world, iCanHelpline is part of the new middle layer of help demanded by today’s very social, user-driven media environment – middle in the sense that we help in two directions. We provide help and perspective to users and much-needed context to social media user support teams, making abuse reports actionable. Because, as parents, teachers and school administrators know, it’s very hard to understand young people’s online interactions (even offline ones) without any context, and it’s even harder for people far away who neither know the young people nor their school context. So we help both sides help students better.

iCanHelpline honored by National School Boards Assoc.

March 17, 2016 By ICanHelpline

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 March 17, 2016

Media Contact: Anne Collier 801.663.6629, anne@icanhelpline.org

ICANHELPLINE.ORG CHOSEN BY THE NATIONAL SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION FOR ITS 2016 TECH INNOVATION SHOWCASE
The U.S.’s First Internet Helpline for Schools Is Recognized for Using Technology to Support Positive Use of Tech and Media in School

SAN JOSE, CA—iCanHelpline.org, the U.S.’s first Internet helpline dedicated to schools, is being honored by the National School Boards Association as one of the six startups in its 2016 Tech Innovation Showcase. The winners will be showcased at the NSBA’s annual convention in Boston, April 9-11.

The social media helpline, which is now being piloted in four states by national nonprofit organizations Net Family News Inc. and #iCANHELP, helps school administrators and educators address school-related problems that show up in social media – problems such as harassment, cyberbullying and inappropriate content. If an issue violates a service’s Terms of Service, the helpline, through its founder’s longstanding relationships with social media companies, can help the content get removed.

“We’re thrilled to receive this confirmation of our valuable service to schools and look forward to expanding the service nationwide next school year,” said Anne Collier, executive director of The Net Safety Collaborative, a collaboration of Net Family News and #iCANHELP.

“We thank the NSBA for helping us help schools address social media problems with the confidence that comes from understanding social media and having tools like the helpline,” said #iCANHELP co-founder and helpline co-creator Matt Soeth.

For this phase of the helpline pilot – the rest of this school year – school personnel in California, Georgia, Washington State and West Virginia can call TNSC’s iCanhelpline toll-free on school days between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Pacific Time at (855) 997-0409 or email anytime at help@icanhelpline.org. The helpline expects to provide help to schools nationwide next school year. Meanwhile, links to emergency and specialized help services and school social media resources are available 24/7 to everyone visiting icanhelpline.org.

iCanHelpline.org has received support from ASKfm, Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Twitter, Yahoo and the Digital Trust Foundation.

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iCanHelpline launches

August 17, 2015 By ICanHelpline

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 17, 2015
Media Contacts: Anne Collier 801.663.6629, anne@netfamilynews.org
Sarah Elliott 650.477.6585, sarah@sqcomms.com

#iCANHELP AND NET FAMILY NEWS LAUNCH SOCIAL MEDIA HELPLINE FOR CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS

Open for emails anytime and toll-free calls 9am-4pm on school days throughout the 2015-’16 school year

SAN JOSE, CA—Net Family News Inc. and #iCANHELP today announced the launch of iCanHelpline, a phone and email helpline for schools they’re piloting in California this 2015-’16 school year. The Helpline, which is the first of its kind in the U.S., aims to help resolve problems in social media involving students, staff and others in the school community – problems such as cyberbullying, sexting and reputation issues. Where abusive content violates social media services’ terms of service, the helpline can help get it taken down. California school or district personnel can call toll-free on school days between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at (855) 997-0409 or email anytime at help[at]icanhelpline.org. They’ll find all this information and much more – including links to emergency and specialized help services and school social media resources – at the helpline’s Web site, iCanHelpline.org.

“The Helpline builds on our organizations’ longstanding relationships with social media companies and more than a decade and a half of experience in Internet safety, education and student leadership,” said Anne Collier, the Helpline’s founder and president of Net Family News. “We also work in close cooperation with Internet helplines around the world.”

“The Helpline is unique in approaching students as part of the solution and bringing traditional student leadership education and peer-mentoring practices to digital spaces,” said Matt Soeth, co-creator of iCanHelpline.org and co-founder of #iCANHELP. “We are blending prevention and intervention in a service that – through the work of #iCANHELP – can also offer students and staff on-site training in digital leadership.”

The iCanHelpline pilot is the first step in developing a national call center for helping schools resolve problems in social media. It has already received support from Ask.fm, ClassDojo, Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Twitter and Yahoo. To support this free service to schools, click here.

About us: Net Family News is a San Jose, Calif.-based national nonprofit organization founded in 1999 to educate the public and advise the Internet industry about research and developments in technology related to youth. #iCANHELP is a Bay Area-based national nonprofit organization that creates and promotes positive, school-based solutions & interventions to online harassment and bullying. To learn more, visit iCanHelpline.org.

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