Peer-reviewed article
Violence against children during COVID-19: Assessing and understanding change in use of helplines
Nicole Petrowski, Claudia Cappa, Andrea Pereira, Helen Mason, Rocio Aznar Daban ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how child helpline usage changed during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, comparing 2020 contacts with 2019 baseline data. Overall contacts to child helplines increased substantially during the pandemic. However, violence-related contacts showed mixed results, increasing in some countries but decreasing in others. The findings highlight that child helplines remained critical services during the crisis, though the inconsistent pattern of violence reports suggests complex factors affecting how children report abuse during lockdowns.
Key points
- Overall contacts to child helplines drastically increased since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Violence-related contacts showed mixed patterns: increased in some countries, decreased in others
- Child helplines remained operational and served as critical lifelines for children and women during the crisis
- Many child protection services were disrupted by COVID-19 containment measures, making helplines more important
- The study recommends strengthening child helplines and designating child protection services as essential during emergencies
Limitations
The study does not explain the mechanisms behind the mixed results for violence-related contacts or investigate why some countries experienced increases while others saw decreases. The document also does not detail which specific countries showed which patterns or provide analysis of confounding factors that may have affected reporting behaviour during lockdowns.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Many of the measures taken by countries to contain the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in disruptions to child protection services. Despite this, many countries have worked to ensure that child helplines remain operational, making such mechanisms even more critical for reporting and referring cases of violence and for providing support to victims. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to document what has occurred, and been reported, to child helplines during the COVID-19 pandemic. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The study entailed primary data collection from child helplines and a search of media articles and news stories. METHODS: Child helplines submitted data on the contacts received during the first six months of 2020. Data on contacts related to violence were also available from 2019, and used as baseline. The media search used a combination of search terms to identify relevant articles and news stories published between March 1 and June 17, 2020. RESULTS: Overall, the number of contacts to child helplines seems to have drastically increased since the beginning of the pandemic. However, the number of contacts related to violence has increased in some countries, while it decreased in others. CONCLUSIONS: While a mixed picture emerges with respect to violence, the increase in overall contacts made to child helplines provides evidence that such services are a critical lifeline for many children and women during times of crisis. Child helplines should be strengthened; and child protection services should be designated as essential during emergencies to ensure children receive the support they need.