Australian Communications and Media Authority – Safer Internet
Day Radio 5 February 2013 – Interview with Wendy Protheroe, CEO
Kids Helpline
Australian Communications and Media Authority – Cybersmart
Kids Helpline Wendy Protheroe
ROSALIE
Good afternoon, Wendy. Thank you very much
for coming along and being part of our
Safer Internet Day radio program. Um…
WENDY PROTHEROE
Thank you. It’s very good to be here.
ROSALIE
What I’d like to talk to you, today, um,
about is about the Kids Helpline and the-the vital service that you provide.
WENDY PROTHEROE
Well, Kids Helpline’s been around, now, for
twenty-two years. So, we’re not a new
service, but certainly, we’re a growing
service. And kids can come to us by web and
e-mail or by telephone and talk to us about
any issue that they wish to. So, it’s quite
broad, actually, what they talk to us
about. But in the cyber-world, certainly,
cyber-bullying continues to be an issue
that they raise with us. We’re getting
growths in, um, in sexting, information
questions about sexting. Kids are also…
This is a good thing that they’re coming to
us about… They’re coming to us, talking
about being a good, um, citizen…
ROSALIE
Oh, okay.
WENDY PROTHEROE
…on the, um, on the web, which is really
good. So, they’re actually saying to us,
‘What are some of the things that we need
to do, so that we can show others what’s
happening.’ That’s really important for us,
because I think that’s a-- that’s a move
we’ve been waiting to see.
ROSALIE
Yeah. Now, then…
WENDY PROTHEROE
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Australian Communications and Media Authority – Safer Internet
Day Radio 5 February 2013 – Interview with Wendy Protheroe, CEO
Kids Helpline
So, while we get lots of problems, that’s a
nice part. And of course we also, you know,
kids can come to us and talk about child
abuse and they’ll come to us and talk about
general problems that they’re having as
they try and get through their day. We get
lots of kids coming to us over the web and
wanting to talk about really serious
issues, such as, um, self-harming and
suicide. And-- And that’s why we-- we only
have qualified counsellors, who’ll work.
Because they can come and chat about
anything and then, we’ll fit them into a
counseling call, if that’s what’s needed.
ROSALIE
Do you find that kids come and talk to you,
rather than to their mum or dad or someone
else in their family?
WENDY PROTHEROE
You know, I don’t know how many times we
talk to kids, either through Kids Helpline
or directly at schools and say to them, ‘If
you feel as though you’re being bullied or
something’s happening to you, tell an adult
that you trust. Tell your mum or dad.’ And
yet, when we do all the research, we still
find that it’s a really low proportion of
kids who go to their parents about things.
So, I think coming to us via web, what they
seem to do is test us out, in some way. So,
they come and they start to have a chat
about general conversations, because in all
the time we’ve been around, what we hear
from kids most often is, ‘We just wish
someone would listen.’ And that’s what
they’re doing. They come to us and you’re
right: They start to talk about something
and if they get listened to and they get-their questions get answered with dignity,
then, suddenly, they’ll open up and they’ll
tell you what’s really happening for them
in the world.
ROSALIE
And is that also, perhaps, a way of-- of
talking to someone who’s not going to,
perhaps, overreact or have that personal
response that a parent might have?
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Australian Communications and Media Authority – Safer Internet
Day Radio 5 February 2013 – Interview with Wendy Protheroe, CEO
Kids Helpline
WENDY PROTHEROE
Mm, yeah, no, I don’t know about you, but I
know I’m a parent; and I know, sometimes,
when the kids say something to me, I will
want to react straightaway, because my
emotions get involved.
ROSALIE
Yeah.
WENDY PROTHEROE
And what kids don’t like is when they say
to their mum, ‘Somebody’s sending me
messages over the phone I don’t want to
hear’, or ‘Every time I turn on my
computer, I get an e-mail about something’…
They don’t want to say that to parents,
because often, parents then go, ‘Well,
that’s all right, we’ll take it off you.’
ROSALIE
That’s right.
WENDY PROTHEROE
And that’s punishing the kids for trying to
start a conversation. What we have to learn
is nowadays, kids have made their choice.
Technology is their preferred communication
method. What we have to do is find a way to
have that being a good and safe way of
communicating via technology and backing it
up with listening and face-to-face
communication.
ROSALIE
It is important, isn’t it, that kids talk
to someone. I mean…
WENDY PROTHEROE
Mm.
ROSALIE
… in just the calls that we’ve had and the
research that we’ve done, there is a-- a
worrying level of-- of young people who
don’t want to talk to anybody, who don’t
talk to anyone. But it is actually really
critical that they do.
WENDY PROTHEROE
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Australian Communications and Media Authority – Safer Internet
Day Radio 5 February 2013 – Interview with Wendy Protheroe, CEO
Kids Helpline
Yeah. It’s, um, it’s interesting that we
almost need to be role modeling to kids
that we value and respect the technology
that they use, but it’s one part of
communication; it’s not only the
communication. There is a-- an emerging
issue, that’s happening with kids, now and
that’s those who are addicted to the use of
technology. That’s something we’re gonna
have to watch, over the next few years,
that kids take themselves away from basic
communication, where they can see somebody,
get messages from their face, start to get
some warmth about communicating; and going
to a place where they only objectively talk
online. So, we’ve just got to watch how we,
as mums and dads and teachers… Anybody
who’s caring for kids, how we make sure
that we intervene and include that really
important person-to-person communication.
ROSALIE
It is a learned skill, isn’t it, that
ability to communicate and to be able to
read those cues, um, that you’re not
getting when you-- when you’re
communicating online. Um, what’s the best
way for-- for kids and for parents to
contact the Kids Helpline?
WENDY PROTHEROE
Well, there’s a range of ways: The Kids
Helpline website, as I said to you, which
is kidshelp.com.au, which you can have a
look at the areas that are of interest,
which gives you some-- some hot topics
about key things that kids will talk to us
about. Um, and for mums and dads that have
got primary school kids, it’s a good tool,
when a primary school kid can look up and
talk about going to a party and how you
talk to people and get on with the people…
In their age-appropriate language.
ROSALIE
Yeah.
WENDY PROTHEROE
That’s really important. If kids want to
talk to a counsellor, they can ring us on
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Australian Communications and Media Authority – Safer Internet
Day Radio 5 February 2013 – Interview with Wendy Protheroe, CEO
Kids Helpline
1800 55 1800. And they get connected
through to a tertiary qualified counsellor,
who will listen, then respond. If they want
to come to us and use web-counselling, they
come back in through that website, again or
e-mail. They’ll get the addresses in there.
So, it’s really remembering the number and
kidshelp.
ROSALIE
The…
WENDY PROTHEROE
And we do operate twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week, every single day of the
year. So, the counsellors spend Christmas
day here and Easter here. And it is
available for kids anywhere in Australia.
ROSALIE
Okay, and there’s always someone to talk
to.
WENDY PROTHEROE
Yes.
ROSALIE
Well, thank you very much for your time,
this afternoon, Wendy, it’s been great.
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