Telephone hotline No. 111 has been regulated as the National Child Protection Hotline and is expected to be put into service in December.

Hotline No. 111 will be put into service in December 2017, aimed at improving the care and protection of children. 

Nguyen Thi Nga, Deputy Director of the Department of Child Care and Protection (under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs), said that, according to Decree No. 56/2017 (Decree 56) issued by the Government which details the guidelines for several articles under Children Law, people that call the hotline will enjoy exemptions from phone call and consultancy’s fees.

When it comes into operation, there will be three consulting stations in Hanoi, Da Nang and An Giang, whereby the Hanoi call centre connects and handles consultations for 28 provinces and cities in the North, while Da Nang handles calls from 16 provinces in Central Vietnam and the Central Highlands, and An Giang serves 19 provinces and cities in the South.

Since 2004, Vietnam has used a telephone hotline for advising and supporting children on 1800.1567. Currently, the Child Counseling and Support Line 1800.1567, by the Department of Child Care and Protection, has been in operation for 13 years and is free of charge, receiving over 2.5 million calls across the country.

To make it easy to remember and respond in the case of an emergency, the around the clock 111 hotline has been set up, alongside other emergency numbers, such as 113, 114 and 115.

One of the key tasks of the national hotline on child protection set under Decree 56 is to receive, exchange, verify information, report and denounce child abuse or children at risk of violence, exploitation and neglect.

The labour ministry’s department is responsible for the management and operation of telephone centres using the national hotline service, in line with the provisions of the current law on child protection and the planning of the management and use of telecommunications number storage.

The child care department also assumes the prime responsibility for coordinating with the concerned telecommunications businesses in putting the hotline into service, whilst informing and instructing the telecommunication service users on the use of this service number.

Telecommunications enterprises have the responsibility to coordinate with the department in making connections, declarations and the routing of calls to the 111 service number according to the provisions of law on telecommunications.

Nhan Dan