Childline is encouraging young people to speak out against discrimination as figures reveal the service delivered almost 2,700 counselling sessions about race and faith-based bullying in the last three years.
Today (20 March) Childline is launching its new Understand Me campaign amid fears children are suffering in silence from physical bullying, verbal abuse, cyberbullying and racist name calling because of the colour of their skin, religious beliefs or their accent.
It comes as Freedom of Information figures obtained by the NSPCC from police revealed a 14 per cent increase in hate crimes against children in one year, with 5,349 hate crimes with a racial, religious or faith- based element in 2016/17. In Yorkshire & Humberside over the two-year period forces recorded a total of 718 of such hate crimes.
The campaign, which includes a film ‘Think You Understand Me?’, aims to challenge xenophobia and prejudice, to empower young people to speak out about racial bullying and discrimination and seek help should they need it.
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