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Implementation
lence against children. We will examine the extent to which attention is also paid to child abuse material
in later sub-sections.
3.3.2.1 The Kindertelefoon service 180
The Kindertelefoon service was established in 1979 and forms part of the Youth Care Agency. It is an
organisation that offers children between the ages of eight and eighteen someone to contact free of
charge by telephone 181 or via the chatroom/MSN, in order to talk – anonymously, if so desired – about
issues and problems, including sexual violence. The Kindertelefoon service currently has 18 branches
in the Netherlands, and is staffed by volunteers who have all followed the same course of training
at the Kindertelefoon Academy. The service can be contacted 365 days a year from 2.00 pm to 8.00 pm,
and provides children with information or advice, or offers support. In 2008, Kindertelefoon began
an active policy of referrals to the Youth Care Agency whenever a child is at risk and consents to the
referral. 182
Recording of data by Kindertelefoon
In 2009, Kindertelefoon received 298,537 calls, held 115,271 chat sessions and its website 183 was viewed
1,721,751 times. Of all telephone and chatroom conversations, 141,112 were deemed serious, 184 which
equates to just 34% of the total number of conversations. Girls contact Kindertelefoon more frequently
than boys 185 and the age group twelve up to and including fifteen years is the most represented. Eight
percent of all children who were genuine callers to Kindertelefoon talked about ‘violence’ and this mainly
involves physical abuse, but sexual violence also falls into this category. Information about child pornography
is not available.
The Kindertelefoon service is a member of <strong>Child</strong> Helpline International (CHI), the international network
of child helplines. The publications of the CHI in 2010 included Violence against children: Fourth <strong>Child</strong>
Helpline International Report, which provided information concerning all cases of abuse and violence 186
that were reported by children to 62 helplines (57% of all CHI members, including Kindertelefoon in the
180 Landelijk Bureau Kindertelefoon [<strong>National</strong> Office of Kindertelefoon], 2010.
181 Since 2009, it has been possible to call free of charge using a mobile telephone, which resulted in
a substantial increase in the number of calls (unfortunately the number of ‘non-serious’ calls also
increased).
182 “<strong>Child</strong>ren and young people who find themselves at risk and contact the Kindertelefoon service are carefully transferred
to a member of staff of the Youth Care Agency by means of a group call. This may only take place once the child has provided
his/her consent to this and waives his/her anonymity. A professional care worker at the Youth Care Agency takes over the
conversation and the child is given help straight away, in order to ensure safety.” (<strong>National</strong> Office of Kindertelefoon,
2010).
183 See www.kindertelefoon.nl (viewed 8 September 2011).
184 82,184 telephone conversations and 58,928 chatroom conversations. It is regularly the case that people
call or chat for ‘non-serious’ purposes, these are in particular ‘silent calls’ (potentially children who are
afraid to talk), test calls or are in fact ‘non-serious’ conversations.
185 The ratio of girls to boys is approximately 2:1 in telephone conversations and 3:1 in chat conversations.
186 This can be divided into physical abuse, harassment, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect and physical
punishment.
141