Hotline for child protection 111 receives more than 5 million calls

ABO/NDO- The National Child Protection Hotline No.111 has received nearly 5.4 million calls during its 19 years of operation , in addition to providing advice and support to hundreds of thousands of cases related to children.

The information was released at a seminar on the communication plan on the National Child Protection Hotline in the 2023-2024 period in an effort to raiseawareness of and access to services of the hotline. The event was jointly held by the Department of Children’s Affairs under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in coordination with Childfund Vietnam.

Each year the hotline receives nearly 500,000 calls from children and adults and gives consultancy for more than 30,000 calls while intervening in and supporting about 1,000 cases of child violence, abuse, and trafficking.

Delegates attend the seminar.

However, the number of children, parents, and people who know the hotline and use its services remains low compared to a population of nearly 100 million people, which includes about 23 million children.

Director of the Centre for Counselling and Communication Services under the Department of Children’s Affairs Vu Van Dung said: “Through surveys and research, only one-third of parents are aware that their children are at risk of being abused in the family and they can report to the People’s Committee at the commune level or via hotline 111. It is worth mentioning thatchildren are the group that has yet to be approached and has the lowest awareness of the role of hotline 111”.

Many delegates also said that there are still difficulties in accessing hotline 111, especially the issue of information security.

Parents or caregivers are still afraid to call the hotline for fear of affecting children and information leakage, according to Le Ngoc Bao of Childfund Vietnam.

The hotline 111 is expected to increase the rate of children, parents, teachers, caregivers, and members of the community at large who know about the functions and duties of the hotline and use its services in protection of children.

(Source: NDO)