Don't Hide It Campaign

As part of this campaign, ChildLine developed a dedicated website which featured a series of case studies based on children's experiences of abuse - but concealing their identities by using the voices of actors and actresses. Five stories about children suffering from 5 different kinds of abuse were featured as part of this online component of Don't Hide It. By using information and communication technology (ICT), NSPCC hoped to enable those in similar situations to understand they are not alone, to communicate their experiences to someone who could help, and to find resources for survival.

Radio and TV PSAs featuring children and youth were created as part of the campaign; to view some examples, click here or here.

One key tool described on that website was the ChildLine telephone service, which enables children to "speak to someone who cares about your problems. The counsellors are all trained - they will listen to you and try to help you. ChildLine is always open - call 0800 1111 anytime." The ChildLine website which is still in operation, as of this writing also provides concrete information about bullying, neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. The site also features kids' online games that, for instance, enable children to create a personalised "badge" (with different shapes, styles, and looks) to show peers they support care about the issue of child abuse. Visitors to this page read: "You can post your badge and add it to your own page on Bebo, Piczo and and more [social networking sites]..."

To explain this strategy, Stephanie Hughes, digital communications manager for NSPCC, notes that it was important for the organisation to provide a digital response to getting children to verbalise their experiences of abuse because they are increasingly internet-savvy. "With the increase of social networks and how children behave online, it was obvious we needed to reach out to them in an environment they trusted and in a way that didn't push information at them but provided it to them in their own terms," Hughes says. To maximise the number of children the site reaches, the NSPCC developed core partnerships with social networking sites and placed advertisements on the sites of MSN, TeenToday, and Smash Hits.

Children, Rights, Health.

"There's no way I could have done face-to-face counselling before talking to ChildLine." - Gavin, age 14.