THE ISPCC Childline service received 144,220 calls - an average of about 400 a day - last year, the largest number in its history, according to the society. Calls about child sexual abuse were down by more than 10 per cent but calls about physical abuse rose by more than a fifth.
Almost 800 calls were made from mobile phones, according to a regional breakdown provided by Telecom Eireann. The ISPCC chief executive, Mr Cian O'Tighearnaigh, said not all of these calls would be from children.
"Some could be adult counsellors phoning in to they would be late." But children were increasingly using mobile phones to call Childline.
The 144,220 calls last year were the largest number in the eight years of the service and were an increase of 27 per cent on 1995.
Less than half the 1996 figure was classified as "full communication calls" or real calls. More than 76,000 calls were silent calls or calls during which the caller was the only one who said anything, or communication was limited.
The majority of the real calls involved "chat" where the callers wanted to talk about their everyday lives. About 13 calls a day related to sexual abuse. This represented a drop of 11.05 per cent on 1995.
Calls about physical abuse outnumbered those about sexual abuse and rose by 21.4 per cent from 4,348 in 1995 to 5,277 last year. Calls about bullying rose by 19 per cent on 1995 and there was a 54 per cent increase in the number of calls about drugs.
Announcing the figures yesterday Mr O'Tighearnaigh said the service was being expanded to include a late night phone line at weekends. More than 90 per cent of the calls last year were from children and more than three quarters of the callers were girls.
"It is possibly the most used children's service in this country" Mr O'Tighearnaigh said, "and it is a hugely trusted service". He said the ISPCC would be distributing about 100,000 booklets to children about their rights under the UN Convention.
The ISPCC is planning a national political campaign, "to move children's rights up the political agenda".
Mr O'Tighearnaigh said the ISPCC referred about 1,000 cases of suspected child abuse to the Garda and the health boards every year. Between 400 and 600 of these referrals were from Childline. He said the authorities received around 6,500 referrals of suspected child abuse every year.
The ISPCC director of services, Mr Paul Gilligan, said the organisation's policy was to refer the matter to the authorities if it suspected child abuse. "We advise children of that policy, and if they choose to remain anonymous then there are no consequences. But if a child gives their name then we will have to act."
He said a generation of children had grown up with Childline since it started in 1988.
Mr O'Tighearnaigh said there were no figures on the number of ISPCC referrals which resulted in action by the authorities. Mr Gilligan said he understood the health boards had a policy of acting on any ISPCC referral.
ISPCC research has found that 37 per cent people in the State believe it was wrong to slap children, he said, and he hoped that "reasonable chastisement" of children would be made illegal in the next decade.
Asked about the Children's Bill, Mr O'Tighearnaigh said it was broadly welcome. But he said the legal measures against child pornography would not solve the problem of child sexual abuse. Child pornography was only involved in one in 20 sexual abuse cases, he said.
