An increase in bullying among children contributes to increase in helpline use in Czechia
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in bullying online in Czechia, contributing to an increase in users of the Czech helpline, Linka bezpečí, intended for children and young adults up to 26 years old. The nature of the calls has shifted dramatically over the past eight years, with psychological difficulties, including self-harm and suicidal thoughts, becoming more prominent.
For the thirty years that the helpline has operated, its operators have helped over ten million children. Most of these have been through phone calls. But the association also helps online, via e-mail, and chat.
Chairman of the board of Linka bezpečí, Radek Dudáš, spoke to Czech Radio about its services and how prominent its use has been over the past few years.
“For the past thirty years, the helpline has provided assistance to children, students, and anyone acting in their best interests. We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it's completely free. The Helpline receives approximately 100,000 contacts a year. And that number is growing consistently.”
When the helpline was originally established, the issues callers dealt with were mostly related to partner relationships, peer relationships, and difficult family dynamics. But in the last eight years, the topics have changed dramatically. Psychological difficulties now account for more than a third of all topics, Mr. Dudáš says.
“Self-harm and thoughts of suicide are sub-themes, with COVID-19, economic insecurity, and the recent war [in Ukraine] adding to this. I would like to say a big thank you to our expert team, who are understandably under increasing demands in terms of the seriousness of the topics, for managing this so well.”
There are rising concerns about bullying, especially at the start of the school year, with incidents reportedly increasing by up to 13% annually. In this, Czechia is becoming unique. A 2020 study, titled “EU Kids Online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries,” showed that 59 percent of Czech children aged 11-17 have encountered negative or hateful messages. By comparison, in Poland, less than half of the children faced such comments, while in France, it was one-fifth.
In Czechia, up to six percent of children encounter online hatred daily. Five percent of children and adolescents sent hate messages on the Internet, a rate that is less than their Polish or Romanian peers.
Acknowledging the inadequacy of existing measures, Mr. Dudáš and his team call for a shift toward prevention. This year, their team will start an awareness campaign to reach a larger number of children facing these challenges and to tackle bullying issues earlier in their development to prevent long-term harms associated with bullying. In fact, studies show that bullying is a consistent risk factor for thoughts and actions of self-harm in young people.
“For this reason, we started several years ago a consultation room on our website linkabezpeci.cz, which receives about 850,000 visits per year. We can't say how many children return repeatedly, which is why we talk more about visits.
“Another activity that has been going on since 2011, is the “Helpline Live,” where we try to help children directly in their communities. In the beginning, it was in school classrooms, but recently sports clubs have joined in. In 2023, we reached around 8,000 children in this way.”
