Student Safety Standards

Ensuring student’s safety is of utmost importance to icouldbe and we have taken all reasonable steps to uphold safety. icouldbe.org, in collaboration with the Connecticut Mentoring Partnership and consultants ranging from guidance counselors to high school teachers to university academics, has developed these safeguards. Moreover, icouldbe.org is a member of the National Mentoring Partnership’s E-Mentoring Clearinghouse Steering Committee and meets the national guidelines for online mentoring.

Checking Mentors’ Backgrounds
Keeping in mind that there are no physical meetings between mentors and mentees, every mentor must pass two background checks in order to participate in icouldbe.org.

1. The name of every mentor living in the United States is compared against the database of sex offenders listed in the local Sex Offender Registry. Federal law requires that sexual offenders register with the local authorities.
2. Every mentor’s employer is contacted to verify the mentor’s place of work. Also, in the near future icouldbe.org will conduct more extensive reference checks.

The Communication Systems
The icouldbe.org email system is completely internal. In other words, all communications between mentors and mentees occur at www.icouldbe.org – mentors and mentees do not communicate via their personal email addresses. Mentors and mentees utilize user names, which do not identify the user’s name or place of residence. Moreover, internal email enables icouldbe.org to filter out any exchange of personal email addresses and telephone numbers. In addition, all email communications are saved in databases, enabling icouldbe.org to randomly observe online dialogue. icouldbe.org fully complies with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) through working only with youths aged thirteen years or older.

On icouldbe.org, every student and mentor has a public page, viewable by all users (students also have private pages viewable by them and icouldbe.org staff). The student’s public page contains the user name and career interests but does not identify the student’s full name, place of residence or name of school. The student’s private page does not contain the student’s name or personal address but may contain other self-identifying information. Therefore, the student’s private page is just that – private, and not seen by the general icouldbe.org public. The mentor’s public page contains the mentor’s user name, state of residence and professional history; the mentor’s full name and personal address are not disclosed.

There is a space on icouldbe.org resembling what’s commonly referred to as a “bulletin board.” Unlike email, which is between just two people, all communications in the bulletin board system are public. Therefore, aside from the icouldbe.org staff randomly monitoring chat room conversations, all members of the icouldbe.org community (mentors and mentees) see all communications. Thus any inappropriate communications are seen and summarily reported to icouldbe.org.

Required Notification
If a mentee confides that he or she is the victim of sexual, emotional or physical abuse the mentor must notify icouldbe.org immediately. icouldbe.org will contact the proper authorities and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In some states, for example, Texas, the mentor is required to notify the appropriate government agency. And if a mentee tells the mentor of the mentee’s involvement in any illegal activity, the mentor must notify icouldbe.org immediately.