On this national day to combat school bullying, franceinfo offers you an immersion into the 3018 telephone platform which helps children who are victims of bullying at school or on social networks.
“3018, hello!” Within the telephone platform, there are 17 “listeners, psychologists or lawyers who answer calls. “Can you explain your situation to me?”, asks one of the listeners on the phone. 3018 is now the only number to help people who are victims of harassment at school or on social networks. It is accessible seven days a week, all year round, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. The call is confidential, it does not appear on telephone bills, and free. “The behavior you are describing to me is not normal”continues the listener on the phone.
The platform is managed by the e-enfance association and faces an activity that continues to increase. The stories are often heavy. The use of 3018 generally occurs when the harassment situation is already very advanced. “It went so far that my daughter dropped out of schoolexplains a mother. She’s starting to hurt herself and she’s done it quite a few times, and she doesn’t want to go back.”
Violence in the courtyard and on social networks
Historically, 3018 mainly handles cases of harassment on social networks, but the government wants to merge it with 3020, which only deals with school harassment. In fact, violence often takes place both in the playground and on cell phones. On the phone, a listener asks: “This Snapchat group that was created where your intimate photos were posted, do you have their username?”
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3018’s expertise is to be able to directly contact the major platforms TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram to remove problematic content. This can take less than an hour or several days. The association can also contact the National Education harassment representatives in the academies, when families consider that they are not listened to enough by the heads of establishments.
Younger and younger victims
The platform is swamped with calls. There are nearly 150 calls per day, describes Justine Atlan, director of 3018, and the increase has been constant for several years: “There was a fairly significant escalation effect following the first major lockdown of 2020.”
“Since confinement, we have really seen exponential growth, each month is a new record month in terms of the number of calls.”
Justine Atlan, director of 3018at franceinfo
The announcement of the plan against school bullying by the Prime Minister at the end of September also further increased the number of requests. Talking about this subject in public debate encourages young people and families to call for help.
An 83% increase in activity in one year
“In the month of October 2023, there was an 83% increase in activity compared to last year at the same period”explains Samuel Comblez, director of operations at 3018. He notes that the victims are increasingly younger: “Mostly they are teenagers, however we see that there is a rejuvenation of our users with more and more users being harassed in our primary schools. It seems to be a trend that is being confirmed.”
Faced with this activity, the e-enfant association is calling for more resources to respond to victims.