Childline charity releases its annual report for 2016

Childline report highlights main concerns from young callers

The annual Childline report has been published detailing the statistics on the charity's helpline activity and the issues raised by callers.

During 2015/16, Childine received calls or messages from 291,753 children and supported a further 9,660 who had serious concerns about another child. The total number of contacts therefore rose to 301,413, a 5% increase compared with 2014/15.

The Childline website received over 3.5 million visits in 2015/16 and almost 140,000 new users registered for a Childline account. This is a dramatic increase. The top 3 concerns raised by children calling were: low self-esteem/unhappiness, family relationships and bullying/online bullying.

Online bullying saw a spike in activity and continued its upward trend in recent years. Counselling about suicidal thoughts and feelings reached the highest ever levels with 19,481 sessions. Amongst the most common reasons for children feeling suicidal was the issue of child sexual abuse which youngsters are now more willing to discuss. However the impact on their mental health is all too apparent.

You can read more about Childline and their service here