ChildLine Website Review

https://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

ChildLine Website Review

ChildLine is a private and confidential service for children and young people up to the age of 19. Children can contact a ChildLine counsellor about anything by calling free on 0800 1111, have a 1-2-1 chat online or send an e-mail. I attended a presentation on the 24^th of November 2014, given by Susan Dobson, the ChildLine Services Manager who reported that 3.2 million children and young people have been helped by this charity since 1986. She stated that depression, unhappiness, family relationships and bullying are the top issues that they deal with. Furthermore she detailed that self-harm is the most increased concern over the last 3 years.

The web page is very interactive and consists of a play area with games, videos and fun; an explore part for advice, information and help and a Talk area where children can call e-mail or chat. Children have an area called the Locker where they can put and save their individual creations and information. They can change the wall paper to colours and designs of their choice. There is a General Advice area on: Bullying, On-line Bullying, Self-Harm, Your Rights, Depression, Feeling Sad and Family Relationships. The web page also includes a message board area and an on-line chatroom where a child can chat to a counsellor.

It is a very engaging and involving website that encourages children to voice and express their opinions in various ways. A very interesting article on “Researching Children: Research on, with, and by Children” acknowledges that the contemporary child research agenda promotes children as social actors and has placed the children’s lived experiences in the public arena (Mason, Watson 2014, p2789). I see the ChildLine web site as epitomising this approach the web page has engaged children and it is a constructed area that allows children to contribute to “resolving some of the structural impediments to repositioning children in knowledge production” (ibid, p2789). For example, it currently has a survey for a Mood Tracker and is asking children for their opinions on how it should be formatted or altered. Children need to be involved and have a voice if we are to fully understand and successfully engage and support them.

Moreover, according to Hill and his research, he suggests that fairness, effectiveness, agency, choice, openness, diversity, satisfaction and respect are fundamental considerations children require and have divulged to him in his research (2006 p, 85). Hill further develops this children’s own emphasis on fair representation by proposing that the methods used allow relevant and required persons a chance to be involved (ibid, p85).  The ChildLine webpage certainly allows for the involvement of support as Hill advocates, and actively asks and suggests ways everyone can become involved, including both adults and children.

The Childline Web Site is a very helpful, support, engaging and inclusive webpage that benefits many children. It is a very informative, non-judgemental and confidential area that allows children the freedom to express their own individual emotions and feelings, in a safe, reassuring environment. My one concern with the site is that it is a charity and therefore relies on handouts and its funding is not stable or guaranteed which is frightening, considering the amount of children who use it and find it so accommodating.

References:

HILL, M., 2006. Children’s Voices on Ways of Having a Voice Children’s and young people’s perspectives on methods used in research and consultation. Childhood, 13(1), pp. 69-89.

MASON, J. and WATSON, E., 2014. Researching Children: Research on, with, and by Children. Handbook of Child Well-Being. Springer, pp. 2757-2796.