Every two seconds a child reaches out to a child helpline. 50 per cent of these calls for help remain unheard because child helplines lack the resources to answer every call.
To protect young people and safeguard their right to be heard, the Deutsche Telekom, the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) formed a partnership with the Child Helpline International (CHI). The GSMA, association of mobile operators, and CHI have established a roadmap for promoting child helplines across the globe, including measures to strengthen relationships between national mobile operators and their in-country helplines and foster collaboration on issues such as a safer internet for children.
"Child Helpline International’s mission is to ensure that every call is answered, so every child in need of being heard can be heard. The GSMA is committed to playing its part in achieving this important goal," said Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA.
Supporting operators Deutsche Telekom with all other national subsidiaries supports the national helplines. Together, 23 mobile operators are important stakeholder the agreement and to help children around the world. They all declared to create awareness for this campaign in their countries. Since 1991 Deutsche Telekom is a strong partner for the German umbrella organization “Nummer gegen Kummer” ( https://www.nummergegenkummer.de ), the largest telephone counseling service in Germany.
" Children benefit from positive use of technology" "As an integral part of our corporate responsibility, we aspire that children benefit from positive use of technology. Therefore, we have established long standing partnerships with helpline organisations and support them in many of our markets. We are pleased to continue our support and expand it to further markets within this joint initiative, which can also include CHI members," says Timotheus Höttges, CEO Deutsche Telekom AG.
Public support To support child helplines internationally and to generate public support, the CHI launched the “Free Our Voice” campaign last month. Utilising custom sound recognition technology, visitors to the campaign website can sign the petition by verbally recording their name, instead of the usual written or digital signature.