Child helpline data shows that child protection requires an EU-wide response – Minister Fitzgerald

Frances Fitzgerald TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has today said that data collated from European child helplines must act as a wake-up call for policy-makers on the scale of pressures and problems facing Europe’s children and young people and therefore requires an EU-wide response.

Minister Fitzgerald stated that: “during the past 10 years over 3 million children and young people contacted European hotlines because they were being abused or subjected to violence or serious neglect, primarily at the hands of family members. This stark reality highlights the continuing imperative to raise awareness of child protection and to introduce more robust laws and services to protect children from abuse and neglect.”

The Minister was addressing the launch of 10 year data from European child helplines at an event organised by Child Helpline International (CHI) in the European Parliament in Brussels. Minister Fitzgerald was representing the Irish Presidency of the EU.

The Minister stated: “This 10 year data, based on 58 million phone calls to European child helplines, represents a unique and highly-valuable bank of data highlighting the scale of pressures and problems affecting Europe’s children and young people. It is vital that policy-makers at both national and EU level reflect on this data and ensure that the key learning filters through to the design and development of integrated child protection systems.”

The data indicates that the most common reasons for calls to child helplines over the past 10 years include:
• mental health concerns 18%
• abuse and violence 18%
• peer relationships 15%
• sexuality and sexual awareness 12%
• family relationships 12%

The data indicated that mental health concerns, while averaging 18% over 10 years, had shown a dramatic increase between 2008 and 2012 when they made up nearly a quarter (22%) of all contacts.

According to the findings, two-thirds of physical abuse reports, 43% of sexual abuse reports and 55% of emotional abuse reports involved a family member.

The data further highlighted the increasing concerns across Europe in relation to bullying and cyber-bullying, with 94% of bullying cases reported to have taken place in schools.

Minister Fitzgerald said that today’s event “further reinforces the need for whole-school and community responses, involving government, teachers, parents, youth services and technology providers working together to address the menace of bullying through innovative and cross-sectoral responses.”

Child Helpline International who organised today’s event represents 173 helplines in 141 countries, including Childline in Ireland which is run by the ISPCC.

Minister Fitzgerald commended the work of child helplines which she referred to as “an increasingly important and essential part of our child protection systems.”