Together for Girls has launched a new edition of the Out of the Shadows Index, which measures country progress in preventing and responding to child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). The inclusion of an indicator on the Availability of a Helpline (Indicator 2.5) is a meaningful recognition of the critical role child helplines play in child protection systems: providing children and young people with a confidential, child-friendly pathway to seek support, disclose harm, and report abuse, particularly when they may not feel safe speaking to authorities.
The Index shows that half of countries assessed have an accessible child helpline offering counselling and referral services. Integral to our mission at CHI is ensuring that child helplines are accessible 24/7, via multiple channels of contact, so that children and young people can receive the support they need whenever they need, however they need it.
While it is encouraging that many countries have made progress, maintaining accessible and effective child helplines requires sustained investment and long-term commitment. Especially with the evolving needs to children encountering new and emerging forms of harms online, child helplines need trained counsellors, updated protocols, and the capacity to adapt their services to children’s changing realities and help-seeking behaviours.
Sixteen countries have a child helpline that isn’t yet reaching every child. A service that closes overnight, operates only through voice calls, or lacks accessible digital channels can unintentionally exclude the children most in need of support. Addressing these gaps by extending operating hours, strengthening accessibility, expanding digital channels, and maintaining service quality is not simply a technical challenge. It is a resourcing problem. We call on governments and donors to fund child helplines as the core child protection infrastructure they are.
Fifteen countries have no functional child helpline at all. This is what drives CHI’s Unheard Voices programme, which aims to ensure that by 2030, every child, everywhere in the world, has a child helpline to turn to. Unfortunately today, more than 50 countries globally still lack this essential service. We are working country by country to to strengthen political commitment, mobilise investment, and support the establishment of sustainable to bridge this gap and make every child heard.
Data matters — but not all data is the same. The Index also reinforces the importance of data. Indicator 1.5 recognises the role of CSEA prevalence data as “the foundation of an evidence-based response.” This is indeed true.
Although Child helpline data cannot tell us exactly how many children experienced abuse, it has a complementary and vital role to play: it tells us how children who experience harm seek help, in their own words, in real time. This help-seeking data complements epidemiological studies, administrative records, and other national data sources. Together, these forms of evidence create a more complete understanding of violence against children and can help strengthen prevention and response efforts. Investing in child helpline data collection, analysis, and integration should therefore be part of every serious national strategy to address CSEA.
The Out of the Shadows Index makes the invisible visible. Now we need the resources to act on what it shows us – strengthen data collection and integration, establish new child helplines where they lack, and improve the quality and accessibility of child helplines which need it.
Learn more about CHI’s Unheard Voices programme and check out the Child Helpline data we collect and research.
Senior Manager – Data & Research
