Telefono Azzurro

Telefono Azzurro was set up in Bologna (Italy) in 1987.

Ernesto Caffo was associate professor of Child Neuropsychiatry at the University of Modena when he firstly set up the association. Since its inception, the mission has been to give children the possibility to speak and to be heard.

By Italian Presidential Decree of 18 December 1990, Telefono Azzurro gained recognition as a non-profit organization as a result of the important work it was carrying out to defend children’s rights. In 1990, the first toll-free telephone helpline for children (1.96.96 – which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year) was set up. It currently also takes calls from adults who want to report on missing or exploited children. The association’s foundation was a concrete response to the International Convention on the Right of the Child that was signed by the United Nations in 1989. Telefono Azzurro’s commitment to listen to children evolved over years and consequently has become more and more specialized: operators received full professional training and began to cooperate with other European organizations. Likewise, the association progressed as information technology evolved.

Telefono Azzurro’s National Listening Center has approximately a hundred volunteers and a call center service with specialized counselors and telephone lines.

The association later became involved in other activities and interventions to promote children’s rights and to prevent any kind of child abuse. These interventions include the project Tetti Azzurri, which offers facilities to abused children in Rome and Treviso but also emergency, research, and training teams, and international collaboration initiatives using new technologies such as the Internet and social media. The association also promoted “Carta di Treviso,” a protocol signed in 1990 by the National Register of Italian Journalists and the National Federation of Italian Journalists. The Protocol defends the identity, personality and the rights of minors and sets up the basis for other initiatives protecting children’s online privacy.

Telefono Azzurro has contributed to the international debate concerning the rights of the child by promoting and sharing knowledge concerning the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed in 1989 by the United Nations and ratified by Italy in 1991, and the European Convention of Strasburg that was signed in 1996.

In February 2003, Telefono Azzurro was entrusted to manage the pilot phase of the 114 Childhood Emergency Hotline, the outcome of an agreement between the Ministers for Communication, Equal Opportunities, Work and Social Policies. After signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of the Interior in May 2009, Telefono Azzurro has been managing 116.000, namely the hotline for missing children.