Evidence to Protect: Communicating child helpline data for impact

Turning data into evidence that strengthens children’s protection online.

While the online environment offers valuable opportunities, it also exposes children to increasingly serious risks, including sexual abuse, exploitation, and grooming. With our work, we aim to transform data from our members’ child helplines and hotlines into clear insights that guide the public debate and policy making toward practical measures to keep children safe online.

By building an evidence-based narrative, we contribute to a stronger approach to child protection at both national and EU levels. Our goal is to make evidence understandable and actionable, supporting informed decisions that protect children while respecting their privacy.

Our Approach

Public debates on proposed measures by the European Union to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, sometimes frame child safety and privacy as opposing priorities. But protecting children from harm and safeguarding privacy are both essential, and go hand in hand.

We focus on: evidence-based practice, clear communication, and cross-European collaboration with our members Estonian Union for Child Welfare and The Smile of the Child in Greece.

Setting the scene

Reframing child protection online: Privacy protects, protection preserves privacy
Protecting children from abuse and safeguarding their privacy are not competing goals, they are two sides of the same child-protection duty.

How hotlines and helplines help make the internet a safer place for children
Among Eurochild members, there are organisations that manage hotlines or helplines and engage in preventive work. Helplines offer guidance and support to people facing personal concerns, providing a safe space to talk and seek advice. Hotlines, by contrast, focus on reporting harmful or illegal content, helping ensure appropriate action is taken.

Our Partners

Joining forces to protect children online in Europe
In this blog, two Eurochild members and our partners in this project, the Estonian Union for Child Welfare and The Smile of the Child, share insights into the situation of children in the digital environment in their countries and introduce ‘Evidence to Protect’.