To build KIFOV's help directory, we opened the official website of every service we list and recorded what each one says about itself: who it is for, how to contact it, when it is available and what it can do. This report summarises what that check found across 32 services: 28 national services in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, and 4 international ones.
Key findings
- Every country we covered has both a published emergency number and a dedicated helpline for children and young people. In all six, we confirmed the emergency number on an official source.
- Around-the-clock help is the norm where hours are stated. Of the 18 services that publish their hours, 17 say they are available 24 hours a day. The exception is the UK's NSPCC adult helpline, which publishes weekday office hours for phone calls.
- Text is still the exception. Only 6 of the 32 services offer contact by text message. For many teenagers, texting is easier than calling; where text exists, it is worth saying so prominently.
- Routes for young people to remove their own images exist, but not everywhere. Dedicated removal services for under-18s were found for the UK (Report Remove), Canada (NeedHelpNow.ca) and internationally (Take It Down, run from the US). In the other countries we covered, young people are directed to general reporting routes or regulators.
- Languages are rarely stated. Only 5 services say which languages they support. For families who do not speak English at home, that matters.
The services, by type
| Type of service | Number in the directory |
|---|---|
| Emergency services | 6 |
| Child helplines | 6 |
| Crisis lines | 5 |
| Hotlines for child sexual abuse material | 5 |
| Image removal for young people | 3 |
| Online safety regulators | 2 |
| Reporting online exploitation | 2 |
| International directories | 2 |
| Support for parents and carers | 1 |
What we recommend
- Services: state opening hours, text and chat options and supported languages on the first page a visitor sees.
- Platforms: link to the national child helpline and the relevant hotline in the reporting flow, not only in a help centre.
- Governments and regulators: where there is no dedicated route for young people to remove their own images, consider one; the UK and Canadian models are well documented.
How to cite
KIFOV (2026). What we found checking 32 child help services in six countries. KIFOV-R-2026-01, version 1.0. https://kifov.org/research/what-we-found-checking-32-child-help-services/
