Seventy-five percent of calls made to telephone counseling services for children go unanswered, according to Tokyo-based nonprofit Childline Support Center Japan, one of 76 nonprofit organizations and groups in Japan that take calls from children having problems. Those unanswered calls might have been about serious, even life-threatening issues, but of course, we will never know. A better system to help every child who calls is urgently needed.

The number of calls to the services has increased every year, but in fiscal 2012, the calls exceeded 800,000. Of the 821,591 calls made to services, only 214,643, or 26.1 percent, were answered. These startling high numbers show that many children are willing to take the small step of calling to get help. They deserve to be answered.

Children under 18 experience many problems such as bullying, depression, and social and mental conflicts of all kinds. The hotline is one way to ensure that the common problems young people encounter do not become worse and that serious problems are addressed. For many kids, contacting a child-line service is an act of courage.