The NSPCC is calling on European regulators to ensure that new EU guidelines do not stop them from giving young people in distress completely free online access to the new Childline website. Efforts to provide free online access to Childline have been led by O2, who already zero-rate access to the NSPCC’s services for their customers. The children’s charity is currently also in talks with Vodafone, EE, BT, TalkTalk, Three, SKY and Virgin about them delivering ‘zero-rating’ for the website. This would mean young people not having to use any of their data allowance on their mobile devices or requiring credit on their mobile phone to access the information and advice they may desperately need, mirroring the free and confidential Childline telephone service that has been available to young people since the 1980s. Under existing draft EU guidelines, communication providers can give free access to websites as long as the person has an available data allowance on their mobile device. However, they are not allowed to zero-rate a specific website if the user has met their data cap and all other applications are blocked, something that the NSPCC is keen to change ahead of new EU guidelines being finalised at the end of August. The way Childline is used has changed massively since it launched thirty years ago, when 100% of contact from vulnerable children came via the telephone. Last year the Childline website received 3.5 million visits and nationwide call centres provided close to 300,000 counselling sessions, 71% of which were conducted online via email and chat. Children inflicting self-harm and feeling suicidal were the reason behind a high number of these contacts, while reports of online sexual abuse and online grooming continue to rise year-on-year. O2 has also been working in partnership with the NSPCC for the past year to provide parents with the skills and support to keep children safe online. Matt Forde, NSPCC Scotland, national head of service said: “When Childline was founded in 1986 children only used telephones, often telephone boxes, to get in touch. Now almost three quarters of our counselling sessions are being conducted online.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is urging European regulators to ensure vulnerable children have zero-rate access to their services, even if they have no data allowance on their mobile. Current regulations, set to be finalised at Last year, do not allow this. O2 is leading the effort to offer free online access to Childline as they already provide zero-rate access to the NSPCC's services for their customers. The charity is also in talks with TalkTalk, Vodafone, EE, BT, Three, Sky, and Virgin on delivering 'zero-ratings' for the website.