Abuse and Safety

Abuse and safety Child abuse can mean a lot of different things such as neglect, physical, emotional or
sexual abuse - it's not always easy to know if you or someone you know is being abused. But the important thing to remember is that no-one has the right to hurt you or make you do anything that feels wrong.

Here you can find out what abuse means, what you can do to stop it, and who can help you.

Please remember - if you or someone you know is being abused in any way, then the most important thing to do is talk to someone about it.

You can call ChildLine anytime on 0800 1111 or you can speak to a counsellor online in a 1-2-1 chat. You can also speak to other young people on the Abuse and Safety Message Board.

I'd like to find out about

Rape and sexual assault

Being raped or sexually assaulted is deeply upsetting and can leave you feeling frightened, confused, and vulnerable. The most important thing to remember is that it is not your fault and you should never blame yourself for what happened. What they did was wrong and against the law. Some of the content on this page might be upsetting – remember that you can contact ChildLine at any time. Read more about Rape and sexual assault

Neglect

Neglect is when you are not being looked after or supported properly by your parents or carers (including foster parents or care staff, if you are in care). If the people who are supposed to look after you don’t usually give you the important things you need, or make it hard for you to take care of yourself, then this is neglect. Read more about Neglect

Emotional abuse

Emotional abuse is when someone says or does something that makes you feel bad about yourself, or that hurts your feelings. Emotional abuse can be difficult to explain but it’s the way that it makes you feel that is important. If the way someone treats you and what they say and do to you makes you scared, sad or upset – that’s emotional abuse. Read more about Emotional abuse

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse is when a child or young person is pressurised, forced, tricked or coerced into taking part in any kind of sexual activity with an adult or another young person. This can include kissing, touching the young person's genitals (private parts) or breasts, intercourse or oral sex. It can happen to anyone – boys and girls. If you are being sexually abused it's not your fault and you're not alone. Read more about Sexual abuse

Physical abuse

Physical abuse is when someone deliberately hurts or injures you. Hitting, kicking, beating with objects, throwing and shaking are all physical abuse, and can cause pain, cuts, bruising, broken bones and sometimes even death. No one has the right to hurt you in this way. Physical abuse can happen as a single event or over a longer period of time. Read more about Physical abuse

Ask Sam

Cyberbullying and so called friends

Okay so, on facebook my so-called friends, have been being really mean and horrible to me, and today at school i just got constant abuse from so many people :( and i don't understand what i did to them! at...

Write a letter to Ask Sam

Privacy and advice: About Childline; confidentiality promise; Cover your tracks

Accessibility

We want to make sure everyone can access the information provided on this site

We've put together a few tips and help for you. Please send us a message if you can't find what you're looking for. Or you have a suggestion of something we could include.

Using the keyboard instead of the mouse.
As well as using the tab key to navigate through the screen, the ChildLine website has special access keys:

Alt+S = skip navigation
Alt+1 = home
Alt+0 = accessibility information.

Is the text size too large or too small?
You can change your text settings through your browser options:

In Internet Explorer, go to View > Text size and select your desired text size setting (eg, larger, smaller).

In Firefox, go to View > Text size and increase/decrease using Ctrl and + or -

If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, you can hold down Ctrl and scroll back or forth to increase or decrease the font size in both IE and Firefox.

Changing your computer screen settings
To change the size of the image shown on your screen on a PC running Windows 95 and upwards, go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Settings and change the desktop area by using the sliding bar.

On an Apple Mac, you can use the Monitor & Sound Control Panel to change the resolution.

Having difficulty with your keyboard or mouse?
You can fine-tune your mouse and keyboard settings under Start > Settings > Control Panel > Accessibility in Windows 95/98/NT/2000 and XP.

Skipping navigation for talking browsers and screen readers
For speech browsers, you can press Alt and S followed by Enter to skip navigation on our pages.

The site is W3C level A compliant.

Help

Abuse and safety

On this page you will find links to information about issues related to abuse and safety. If you would like to read more about an issue, click on the title to go through to the information page. If you can't find the issue you want to find out about, you can try the site search or go back to the Explore page to look at other issues.