800,000 Irish Calls To Childline

Biggins · 02-03-2010 01:06PM #1

I heard this mentioned last night by Vincent Brown on TV3 but waited till there was a link available to back it up. 800,000 Irish calls to Childline made last year - thats absolutely staggering in this day and age.
Holy hell, come on legislators, let start putting the fear of long term prison sentencing back into the scumbags that are out there.

Absolute madness.

CHILDREN in despair made a staggering 800,000 calls to the ISPCC’s Childline last year, a surge of almost 25% from the previous year.
The unprecedented level of demand for the voluntary listening service was far more than the organisation could cope with and some 300,000 calls – more than one in three of all those made – went unanswered.

Irish Examiner
Read more: Here.

2ygb4cmqetsjhx · 02-03-2010 01:08PM

The stats are skewed. Their number is a free phone number open 24 hours a day. I call them when I'm pissed just for something to do.

IvyTheTerrible · 02-03-2010 01:09PM

Sasha Many Skull wrote: »

The stats are skewed. Their number is a free phone number open 24 hours a day. I call them when I'm pissed just for something to do.

Nice use of an overstretched service...:rolleyes:

Biggins · 02-03-2010 01:10PM

Sasha Many Skull wrote: »

The stats are skewed. Their number is a free phone number open 24 hours a day. I call them when I'm pissed just for something to do.

1. Its not stats that are just assessed or guessed at - its LOGGED calls.
2. Your lucky calls by you are not traceable ...O' wait! :rolleyes:

2ygb4cmqetsjhx · 02-03-2010 01:11PM

They don't care. They never trace calls and they are also not allowed to terminate a call. So sometimes I let them listen to me sleep and puke too.

Biggins · 02-03-2010 01:12PM

Sasha Many Skull wrote: »

They don't care. They never trace calls and they are also not allowed to terminate a call. So sometimes I let them listen to me sleep and puke too.

Go away troll.

My name is URL · 02-03-2010 01:13PM

Sasha Many Skull wrote: »

The stats are skewed. Their number is a free phone number open 24 hours a day. I call them when I'm pissed just for something to do.

Sasha Many Skull - Hallo.. I'm very upset.. My mam said if I don't find a job and stop drinking that I have to move out of the basement.. What should I do?

Childline - An Hero

Stephentlig · 02-03-2010 01:14PM

Shocking.....you've certainly given me more to pray about today.

Longer jail sentences are needed for sure.

Pax Christi
Stephen

2ygb4cmqetsjhx · 02-03-2010 01:14PM

Biggins wrote: »

Go away troll.

Yeah yeah so I made the bit up about sleeping and puking. But they never hang up! I am not trolling!

Jimmy Bottlehead · 02-03-2010 01:15PM

Sasha Many Skull wrote: »

They don't care. They never trace calls and they are also not allowed to terminate a call. So sometimes I let them listen to me sleep and puke too.

Why don't you cop yourself on? I volunteer, and the last thing that that service needs is some drunk pr1ck ringing up and taking up time that kids need. I hope you realise for every call you make, you're potentially stopping a young child getting to talk to someone - someone that could get them help from violence, abuse, or talk them out of commiting suicide.

I'm all for humour in AH but that's just complete BS. Hope your conscience rests easy man, mine wouldn't.

Jordonvito · 02-03-2010 01:17PM

at least a quater of the calls are prank calls

Kiera · 02-03-2010 01:17PM

I wonder how many of them are real (i'm sure it is still quite high) and not some little D4 twit moaning that Daddy didnt get them a car for their sweet 16.

Biggins · 02-03-2010 01:17PM

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

Why don't you cop yourself on? I volunteer, and the last thing that that service needs is some drunk pr1ck ringing up and taking up time that kids need. I hope you realise for every call you make, you're potentially stopping a young child getting to talk to someone - someone that could get them help from violence, abuse, or talk them out of commiting suicide.

I'm all for humour in AH but that's just complete BS. Hope your conscience rests easy man, mine wouldn't.

300,00 calls go unanswered, I wonder to is aiding the problem and where do we start to look for them? :rolleyes:

TheZohanS · 02-03-2010 01:18PM

Sasha Many Skull wrote: »

Yeah yeah so I made the bit up about sleeping and puking. But they never hang up! I am not trolling!

You're finished with this thread, don't post in it again.

WindSock · 02-03-2010 01:18PM

No you're right, they never hang up and don't trace the calls. It's lovely of them to do that so knobjockeys can take advantage of this. At least it makes you aware that they are confidential and do listen for when you really need them. Lets hope another knobjockey isn't hogging the line for when you do though.

Gone Drinking · 02-03-2010 01:24PM

Heard a guy on the radio saying alot of the calls were issues with relationships, dealing with social abilities and that sort of stuff.

Don't jump into this thread and assume there's 600,000 children being beaten in Ireland.

Childline answers other calls aswell (and fair play to them and those who volunteer)

WindSock · 02-03-2010 01:26PM

Kiera wrote: »

I wonder how many of them are real (i'm sure it is still quite high) and not some little D4 twit moaning that Daddy didnt get them a car for their sweet 16.

The service is provided for any child that needs to talk about anything. It's not just for those suffering from violence/abuse/bullying etc. If they have had a rough day or didn't get the right coloured Uggs, the volunteers are there to listen, no matter what. It's just a shame that there are some people who really need to use the service can't get through.

Biggins · 02-03-2010 01:27PM

Gone Drinking wrote: »

Heard a guy on the radio saying alot of the calls were issues with relationships, dealing with social abilities and that sort of stuff.
Don't jump into this thread and assume there's 600,000 children being beaten in Ireland.
Childline answers other calls as well (and fair play to them and those who volunteer)

Very true.
Either way, its distressed people, maybe my own neighbour behind their curtain that is seeking desperate help.
Sad that the numbers in this day and age are so high. Its not good at all and makes me just want to do more.

Wazdakka · 02-03-2010 01:27PM

I'm taking this as a good thing.

I really don't think it's a statistic showing an increase of abusive situations requireing help.

I think it's a statistic showing an increase in the realisation of children that there is somewhere they can go to about it.

Biggins · 02-03-2010 01:31PM

Wazdakka wrote: »

...I think it's a statistic showing an increase in the realisation of children that there is somewhere they can go to about it.

Good point. I suppose that is a slight good way to also look at the numbers.
Small mercies but a good one.

Assuming that all of a sudden we haven't got a upsurge in kids alone being abused, and such things have been going on at what could be called a (sad) somewhat average rate, its depressing thinking that before the availability of these lines, there really was much lesser of such people in equal numbers in pain, able to seek help in the past.

The_Minister · 02-03-2010 01:31PM

Biggins wrote: »

Very true.
Either way, its distressed people, maybe my own neighbour behind their curtain that is seeking desperate help.
Sad that the numbers in this day and age are so high. Its not good at all and makes me just want to do more.

Just to clarify, it isn't 800,000 individuals needing help.
There could be people who call every day, or most days.

Without a breakdown on the reasons that people are calling, 800,000 doesn't really tell us much.

Hagar · 02-03-2010 01:36PM

Biggins wrote: »

800,000 Irish calls to Childline made last year - thats absolutely staggering in this day and age.

That's a logged call every 45 seconds day-in day-out for a whole year. Those stats can't be correct. I don't think Childline can handle that number of calls.
800,000 ? How many children are in the country? If it's the same kids ringing back time after time what's the point in the service?

Edit - I see from the link 300,000 went unanswered so they are not all logged calls

Biggins · 02-03-2010 01:36PM

The_Minister wrote: »

Just to clarify, it isn't 800,000 individuals needing help.
There could be people who call every day, or most days.
Without a breakdown on the reasons that people are calling, 800,000 doesn't really tell us much.

True. Sadly it does tell us that this one precious location of possible help, is severely strained.

WindSock · 02-03-2010 01:37PM

Childline keep data on what the reason for the call is, as far as I know and the figures get published.

Super-Rush · 02-03-2010 01:39PM

You also have to wonder what percentage of that 800,000 are trolls ringing for lulz.

The_Minister · 02-03-2010 01:43PM

I remember a friend telling me he did a prank on them.

Childline Operator: Hello, welcome to Childline...

Friend: Hello, Paddy?

CO: No sir, this is childline.

Friend: But, I pressed redial to get Paddy...**** it, I'll kill him!

*Roars* Danial!!

/Slams down phone.

Max Power1 · 02-03-2010 01:43PM

super-rush wrote: »

You also have to wonder what percentage of that 800,000 are trolls ringing for lulz.

what a ridiculos waste of a worthy organisations valuable time and resources. There was one such idiot on thread already

Biggins · 02-03-2010 01:44PM

super-rush wrote: »

You also have to wonder what percentage of that 800,000 are trolls ringing for lulz.

Same percentage roughly I suspect that ring the Gardi - Firemen - Ambulance services in hoax calls.
Same percentage of people I suspect that think its fun to throw away the life buoys that are found along side rivers and lakes.
What sad people indeed.

WindSock · 02-03-2010 01:46PM

super-rush wrote: »

You also have to wonder what percentage of that 800,000 are trolls ringing for lulz.

The thing with that is, a lot of them call to 'test' the service. They may call for a laugh at first on their own or with friends, then when they realise 'hey they actually do listen' then they may call back with a bit more confidence the next time for whatever reason. They know that the service is there for them.

Super-Rush · 02-03-2010 01:52PM

WindSock wrote: »

The thing with that is, a lot of them call to 'test' the service. They may call for a laugh at first on their own or with friends, then when they realise 'hey they actually do listen' then they may call back with a bit more confidence the next time for whatever reason. They know that the service is there for them.

I'd hope so. I find it sad that we seem to be on this never ending cycle of children being alienated and neglected by their peers/family/society.

Hagar · 02-03-2010 01:55PM

Just a thought, do calls to Childline show up on a detailed phone bill?

800,000 Irish Calls To Childline

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