Sir, – Every year on St Stephen's Day, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) releases the number of callers on Christmas Day to its 24-hour listening service Childline ("Nearly 800 children contacted Childline on Christmas Day", News, December 26th).
We hear these statistics and momentarily we think “that’s terrible”, but in the age that we live in our thoughts are quickly drawn to something else, either on social media or in the real world (social media isn’t real life, in my opinion).
While the number of children contacting Childline was down on last year’s figures, with just under 800 contacts this year, a 37 per cent decrease on last year’s figures, it is still very high. It is a sad reflection on society and family life in general that this number of children feel they have no other option but to reach out to a helpline. These calls are not made lightly and paint a picture of children in real distress.
Distressed children create distressed adults. When are we going to cop ourselves on to the damage some of us do to the next generation? – Yours, etc,
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TOMMY RODDY,
Galway.