Latest news with #KidsHelpline
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘Do our bit': Call to donate to the Kids Helpline
On tonight's episode of Paul Murray Live, Sky News host Paul Murray discusses the kids helpline, cost of living, AI, US politics and more. 'Tonight, we are going to take just a second to remember the people who do not have it as good as us,' Mr Murray said. 'Most importantly the kids who are having a tough time.' If you or anyone you know needs help: Kids Helpline – 1800 55 1800 Lifeline – 13 11 14 Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636
News.com.au
23-07-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Girl, 7, contemplates suicide, reaches our for help
A seven-year-old girl made a phone call late one night telling a stranger she was thinking about killing herself. That call saved her life. The little schoolgirl, who is still in regular contact with her professional counsellor at Kids Helpline, is just one of 4000 Australian children aged five to nine who reach out for help every year. 'That's a lot of really young people who have the courage to ask for help,' Kids Helpline CEO Tracy Adams told 'We take our role to provide them with free, professional support any hour of the day extremely seriously,' she said. 'I really celebrate that they have that courage and absolute ability to recognise in themselves that they need to talk to someone and help them through what's worrying them. 'The fact they understand themselves well enough to do that is very special. They should never feel not worthy and not valued. We have built a whole service for children and young people, not anyone else, so that's how much we value them.' Last year the service carried out 135,000 counselling responses to people from the age of five to 25. Three per cent of all those contacts were made from children between five and nine years old. Bullying is one of the key issues affecting the young children who reach out. The epidemic is claiming lives of children turning to suicide as an escape. This month a 10-year-old girl died in her bedroom on the NSW South Coast. 'We are not going to solve the bullying issue if we don't engage with young people,' Ms Adams said. 'It's really about building respect, celebrating diversity and helping students and young people to embrace their differences, celebrate them rather than feeling like differences make children a target.' Ms Adams said the support service, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, not only helps young people but 'walks beside families who have suffered great tragedy'. One such family is Kellie and Mat O'Brien from Sydney who lost their 12-year-old daughter Charlotte to suicide last year. The O'Briens are holding a Charlotte's Wish charity event in August this year to raise much needed funds for the service so no child ever has their call unanswered. 'In the wake of our unimaginable loss, we are honouring her legacy by channelling our heartbreak into action,' Mat O'Brien said. 'We aim to strengthen Kids Helpline's capacity to engage, inform, and support children, young people, parents, carers, and educators. It's crucial for everyone to have access to the right support, at the right time, in the right way, and at no cost – 24/7,' he said. 'Our goal is to create a stronger safety net for children and young people, enabling them to access the right support when they need it most. We truly want no child or young person to feel alone, unheard, or helpless in the face of bullying. 'By working together to honour Charlotte, we believe we can create lasting change in the lives of children, young people, and their families.' Mr O'Brien said that while bullying is a complex issue, doing nothing isn't an option.' The charity is also having a Giving Day on Thursday, hoping to raise $500,000 to allow for another 9000 counselling contacts a year.
ABC News
22-07-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
BTN Newsbreak 22/07/2025
BULLYING REPORT First up, to a report on bullying, which has been published by Kids Helpline. Bullying's always been a big problem here in Australia, but new data suggests the problem is getting worse. Stats show that more people are calling Kids Helpline to report bullying and distressing thoughts than at the peak of COVID lockdowns, and it's not the only data reflecting this trend. Experts aren't 100% sure why this is happening, but they say tech likely plays a big part, given more young people are being exposed to harsh content online, and it's easier to bully anonymously. It's why the Federal Government launched an Anti-Bullying Review earlier this year. The goal? Come up with a national standard to better respond to bullying in schools. PARLIAMENT SITS Today marked the first day of the 48th Parliament of Australia. It's been about 11 weeks since Anthony Albanese's Labor government won the election, and it was a chocka-block first day back. And all 150 members of the lower house were sworn in. Milton Dick was voted in unopposed as speaker of the house of representatives for a second term, and the Governor General gave speeches to both the senate and the lower house. CLIMATE CRICKET A new report has come out that looks at how climate change is impacting cricket. This report was commissioned to investigate crickets new 'ultimate test': rising temperatures. It looked at a bunch of cricket games, from international to local, alongside weather conditions, and found that extreme weather is a big threat to cricket. In fact, it found that more than half of the games during the 2025 IPL were played during conditions classed as Extreme Caution or Danger which just means any temperature over 32.3 degrees! As we know, conditions like this can be dangerous, and can lead to fatigue, sunstroke and heat exhaustion. This isn't the first time we've seen heat impact sports, particularly summer sports, and this report's far from being the only one on the matter. Even the Olympics last year developed a special action plan ahead of the Paris Games to minimise heat risks. The hope is that reports like this one can help us learn how to make sport safer by making recommendations and heat policy guidelines so that we can keep watching and playing the sports that we love. BEAR DRILLS First up, to Japan where police are conducting a series of bear drills to help people know what to do in the event of an attack, including using fireworks to scare them off. Recently, there have been a rise in wild bear attacks on humans over there, and sightings are up almost 3 times what they were this time last year. So, training couldn't come at a better time. BATTERY-CHANGING ROBOT Now to a robotics company in China, which claims to have made the first robot in the world capable of changing its own batteries without shutting down or needing any help from humans. Allowing it stay focused on what's really important: working, working and working. JANE AUSTEN CELEBRATION And finally to the UK, where dozens of people have dressed up in 19th-century attire and headed to the house where iconic novelist Jane Austen used to live 200 odd years ago. It's all to celebrate Austen's life and works.
Sky News AU
21-07-2025
- Sky News AU
Prince William and Harry's cousin, 20-year-old Rosie Roche, found dead
Rosie Roche, the 20-year-old cousin of Prince William and Prince Harry, has been found dead at her family property, with a firearm discovered close by, an inquest has heard. Ms Roche, the granddaughter of Princess Diana's uncle, died at her home in Norton, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, on July 14. She was reportedly found by her mother and sister while packing for a trip away with friends. A firearm was located near her body at the scene. The inquest was formally opened at Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner's Court and adjourned until October 25. According to The Sun, area coroner Grant Davies told the hearing police had "deemed the death as non-suspicious and there was no third-party involvement." Rosie had been studying English Literature at Durham University at the time of her death. A spokeswoman said she "will be sorely missed". More to come. If you or anyone you know needs help: Kids Helpline – 1800 55 1800 Lifeline – 13 11 14 Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636 Domestic Violence Helpline – 1800RESPECT
ABC News
21-07-2025
- ABC News
Distress rates from school bullying higher than COVID times, with children as young as 10 facing online and in-person abuse
Warning: This story contains discussion of suicide. School bullying has reached devastating new peaks in Australia, with figures showing rising rates of children as young as 10 expressing serious emotional distress following online and in-person abuse. Crisis counselling service Kids Helpline is sounding the alarm, with its data showing a rising proportion of calls from children aged 10 to 14 who are experiencing bullying and having thoughts of suicide. While health data indicates these thoughts very rarely translate into actions, Kids Helpline chief executive Tracy Adams said they were a key measure of mental health. "[What] we are really seeing over the last five years is significant growth in the level of distress and it's actually higher levels of distress among our younger children," she said. "The nature is now online and offline. So young people are still being physically assaulted, they're still being verbally abused. They're also being isolated and we're seeing that play out in the online environment as well." It coincides with the latest release of data from the landmark Australian Child Maltreatment study that shows more than one in four (28.7 per cent) adults reported being bullied at school, and these rates were not improving for each new generation. The new data is backed by figures from the office of the eSafety Commissioner, which show school-age cyberbullying complaints surged 456 per cent in the past five years — from 536 to 2,978 — and in 2024 nearly half of reports involved children under the age of 13. The office said it was increasingly dealing with deepfakes involving pornographic depictions of classmates or teachers that it must refer to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). The AFP's Centre to Counter Child Exploitation reported a 27.7 per cent rise in reports from the commissioner relating to child image-based abuse, sextortion and cyberbullying in the two years to 2024 from adults and minors. Charlie Ford was just 10 years old when she was first bullied through school messaging apps. By the time she was 13, it had escalated to threats of physical violence, exclusion at school, and gossip being spread over social media videos. At one point, her mother, Serena Ford, said she overheard school friends telling her daughter on a video chat to self-harm. When she spoke to the girls, it was met with verbal abuse. Over time, Charlie said her mental health declined significantly, and she would try to escape the car on the drive to school. "I didn't really want to go to school because of all the threats," she said. "I'd be hearing things from people and that would just make me break down in tears." Serena said it was devastating to watch the spark go out of her once bright little girl. "I had nights where I had to sleep with her because she was just so upset," she said. But after reaching out for help, Charlie got support, and the 16-year-old is now enrolled in distance education. In February, the federal government launched an Anti-Bullying Rapid Review, with findings due to be handed down later this year just as the social media ban for under 16s comes into effect. Co-chair Dr Charlotte Keating said they had received more than 1,600 responses from schools, teachers, parents and young people from around the country. "We've been tasked with putting together potential models for what a consistent national standard could look like to respond to bullying in schools," she said. Serena Ford said each time Charlie moved schools, the institutions' investigations were slow and protracted, and their responses ineffective. "They just kept putting it on Charlie as in, 'she is the problem; she needs to be more resilient'." At one point the family were threatened with breaking the law for not sending Charlie to school but were given no help to find her an alternative place. Serena said schools failed to acknowledge the overlap between schools, friendships and technology. "They told me that 'it's happening outside of school, so it's not their problem'." Ms Adams said their figures indicated Australia was not getting its anti-bullying policies right. In 2024, Kids Helpline received more than 3,500 calls and online contacts about bullying alone. The proportion that involved a child experiencing bullying and having thoughts of suicide was higher than at the peak of COVID lockdowns, which was a "critical mental health concern". "When we see levels of distress to the nature that Kids Helpline is getting, we see tragic consequences," she said. The latest release of data from the Australian Child Maltreatment study also raised questions about the country's responses to school bullying. The study of 8,500 Australians found despite at least two decades of extensive anti-bullying policies in schools, there was "no meaningful change" in the number of people experiencing bullying in their childhood over the past five decades. Lead author Dr Hannah Thomas, from the University of Queensland, said childhood bullying had been linked to higher rates of depression and other mental illness. "Those mental health harms happen not only just during childhood, but they tend to follow people into adulthood as well," she said. The study did find the duration of the bullying was shorter among the most recent generation of 16 to 24-year-olds. Dr Thomas said this suggested some anti-bullying policies "might be working". The Australian Child Maltreatment Study found the main reason people were bullied was because of their height or weight, followed by race or ethnicity, disability, sexuality and gender identity. Kids Helpline said reports to their counsellors suggested bullying happened both in-person and online and could range from physical assault to the use of anonymous online comments. New technologies were compounding the problem, according to the experts. The eSafety Commissioner's office said cyberbullying reports included sending hurtful messages, sharing embarrassing photos, spreading gossip, exclusion from chats and catfishing. "We're not teaching young people to deal with differences with kindness," Ms Adams said. "We see adults behaving poorly online. So we have to ask ourselves, as adults, are we role modelling?" Ms Adams said amid the troubling figures Kids Helpline was hopeful about a rise in young people seeking help. "We've got to continue to promote the strategies that young people have available," she said. Charlie and Serena said they were speaking out because they wanted young people to have more education about how to interact and more support for parents to get their children help. "I really want to make a change because nobody deserves to be treated the way I was treated," Charlie said.
