Huge Rise In Child Sex Abuse Calls

5:56am UK, Monday February 09, 2009
More children were counselled by ChildLine for sexual abuse last year than ever before, the telephone counselling service has said.

A total of 13,237 children called the helpline in 2007/08 saying they were victims of sexual abuse - more than a 50% increase over three years.

The figures showed that more than 36 children, including one aged under seven, called ChildLine every day last year saying they were victims of sexual abuse.

Almost 6,000 children said they had been raped.

ChildLine said that, despite having more volunteers and bases than ever, it was only able to answer two-thirds of the 2.3 million calls it receives every year.

Esther Rantzen, the service's founder and president, said: "There are many children whose cries for help cannot be answered because ChildLine simply does not have enough resources to answer every call.

"Our nightmare is the child who plucks up the courage to ring, fails to get through, and never dares try again.

"Imagine the distress of a child who cannot get through to a counsellor before she is raped again that night."

She said the service urgently needed to be expanded "so that every child's cry for help can be answered".

Sue Minto, head of ChildLine, said many child sex abuse victims had been "threatened or intimidated into silence" and some calls included "details of other extreme forms of abuse like being hit, tied up, threatened with their life and being plied with drugs".

She added that awareness campaigns and child sex abuse storylines on TV programmes like BBC soap EastEnders encouraged children to speak out.

"More children now understand what sexual abuse is and are increasingly willing to turn to ChildLine for help," she said.

The service counselled 13,237 children, including 465 children aged seven or under, for sexual abuse last year, more than at any time in its 22-year history.

The figure was up from 8,637 in 2004/05 - a 53% increase over three years - while the overall number of children counselled rose 26% during the same period.

Most children counselled for sexual abuse - 61% (6,681) - were aged 12 to 15.

Of the 13,237 children counselled for sexual abuse in 2007/08, the vast majority were abused by someone they knew.

ChildLine said 59% said they had been sexually abused by a family member, 29% said they had been sexually abused by someone else known to them and 4% said they had been sexually abused by a stranger.

A total of 8,457 were girls (64%) and 4,780 were boys (36%).

The NSPCC, which provides ChildLine, appealed for the public to donate to its three-year £50 million Child's Voice Appeal, which was launched last year.

A total of 13,237 children called the helpline in 2007/08 saying they were victims of sexual abuse - more than a 50% increase over three years.


I really do have a problem understanding this.....

Are these 13 thousand odd children in care and I seriously doubt that they are as there musnt be enough homes to accommodate them all but if that is true then why arent the ppl who abused these children in prison?

Now I doubt that the prisons in the UK can accommodate all these child molestors so they must be still on the streets right?

Which to me means the authorities are turning a blind eye.....until a child like Baby P comes to light....

Ambersuz wrote:A total of 13,237 children called the helpline in 2007/08 saying they were victims of sexual abuse - more than a 50% increase over three years.


I really do have a problem understanding this.....

Are these 13 thousand odd children in care and I seriously doubt that they are as there musnt be enough homes to accommodate them all but if that is true then why arent the ppl who abused these children in prison?

Now I doubt that the prisons in the UK can accommodate all these child molestors so they must be still on the streets right?

Which to me means the authorities are turning a blind eye.....until a child like Baby P comes to light....

now thats food for thought.