A 2025 impact report by the Kids Helpline says crisis interventions have more than tripled over the past seven years.

A Kids Helpline crisis intervention involves a professional counsellor contacting emergency services or child protection authorities when a young person is deemed to be at immediate risk of harm.

The service responded to 5190 crisis interventions in 2025, an increase of 350 per cent since 2018.

The report also found First Nations young people represented nine per cent of all contacts to the service in 2025, a figure that is more than double their proportion of the Australian population.

It revealed one in three Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people reported thoughts of suicide in 2025.

Kids Helpline is Australia’s only free 24/7 nationwide support service specifically for children and young people aged five to 25 years, offering self-help resources and confidential phone and online counselling.

Tracy Adams, CEO of yourtown which runs Kids Helpline, says behind every crisis intervention was a young person in significant distress.

“We want young people to know they don’t have to wait until they are in crisis to ask for help,” she says.

“We know at Kids Helpline that stigma remains one of the biggest barriers stopping young people from reaching out to the service.

“They worry about being judged, dismissed or becoming a burden if they speak up about what they’re feeling.”

Contact volumes have surged nationwide, with some areas – such as Western Australia – experiencing a 74 per cent increase in youth outreach in a single year.

Sextortion and image-based abuse, not surprisingly, are issues increasingly involving and concerning young people nationwide.

In 2025, 818 counselling contacts were recorded in relation to these, a significant rise since 2020 when 491 contacts were made, an increase of 67 per cent in five years.

In 2020, however, contacts were predominantly from girls and young women (327 compared to 121 from males), whereas in 2025 that pattern was reversed, with 471 contacts from males, compared to 262 from girls and young women. This marks a noticeable shift and points to an evolving pattern of online harm, with boys and young men increasingly being targeted.

The report showed webchat contacts were now the primary way young people reached out to seek help, rather than phone counselling.

“For many, typing feels safer than speaking, particularly when discussing sensitive issues, when privacy is limited, or when they’re reaching out late at night,” Adams says.

A webchat contact took 13 minutes longer on average than a phone contact, meaning the service needs more resources and online counsellors, she says.

Melissa Davidson joined Kids Helpline as a counsellor in 2010 and these days manages an online peer support community (My Circle)  at Kids Helpline, that she helped create.

She says there’s been significant changes in the challenges young people face now, and,thankfully, a greater awareness of mental health.

Young people, though, are facing more constant pressure.

“Social media, greater exposure to global events and 27/7 connectivity means there’s less opportunity to switch off,” Davidson says in the report.

In her experience, the youth advocate says often the people who have the greatest influence in a young person’s life are their peers, which is one reason she established My Circle.

In the program young people are supported to care for their own wellbeing, but also supported to show up for others.

The compassion Davidson sees every day gives her great hope.

Even in really vulnerable moments, young people show empathy, kindness, and a genuine willingness to support each other,” she says.

Kids Helpline is seeking increased funding from federal, state and territory governments as it meets new demands.

(with AAP)

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Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)

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