Child helplines have a unique insight into the gap between policy and reality, making them a key actor in advocating for children’s rights. They support millions of children every year. They respond to issues ranging from serious children’s rights violations, to children who just want someone to chat to on the way home from school. What brings child helplines together is the provision of an easily accessible, confidential system that allows children themselves to tell a counsellor what is going on in their lives. Child helplines also have an insight into the direct experiences of children and young people on a larger scale than any other organisations. Therefore, the value of child helplines’ data on contacts cannot be overstated in informing and guiding policy, learning and practice.
In order to understand the issues faced by the children and young people who get in touch with child helplines, we survey our members around the world every year to gather information about the contacts they receive.
Key Findings
In 2023 our child helpline members received 6,368,322 contacts, of which 2,302,244 were counselling contacts – those situations in which a child helpline is able to provide assistance to the caller.
Girls generally contact child helplines more often than boys do, but this is not true everywhere; in Africa and in the Middle East, for example, boys contact a child helpline as often as girls do or more so.
The most common reasons for children and young people to contact child helplines are fairly consistent over time and place; they make contact when they’re struggling with their mental health and when they suffer violence. In all regions except Europe they also frequently contact child helplines to get help with accessing services.
We also observe some differences between children of different genders. Girls and nonbinary children and young people make contact about mental health more often than boys do. Boys and nonbinary children and young people contact to discuss their sexuality more often than girls do. Girls are as likely as boys to contact a child helpline with issues of violence, and more so than nonbinary children and young people.
