The emergency number provides safety for children
Teaching children how to use the emergency number correctly is a safety action. It is important to talk to children about identifying emergencies and encourage them to report an emergency.
Children are excellent emergency callers; although you never want them to face an emergency. It is important, however, that they are taught the correct use of the emergency number, just as adults are. The age of the child and their own operating environment should be taken into account in the teaching. The key is to reinforce the feeling of safety - children and young people are not responsible for the emergency; instead, they should call 112 to get help.
– The most important thing is that every one of us knows when to call, which means recognising an emergency. You don’t have to worry about knowing what to say on the emergency line, because the operators at the emergency response centre can take control of the call and ask the right questions. In addition to recognising the situation, it can also be a good idea to practice calling: a lot of people are not used to the idea of talking to a stranger on the phone, because everyday interactions are handled through chats and other messages, says Communications Specialist Patrick Tiainen from the Emergency Response Centre Agency.
It is also important to take social media, online crime and things such as the dangers posed by social media challenges into account when teaching young people about the emergency number. They should get a relevant picture of situations, in which they need to report an emergency. Reporting an emergency can interrupt dangerous activity and prevent serious damage. Reporting is the courageous thing to do.
Common safety instructions for children in an EU project
In 2024, the Emergency Response Centre Agency participated in a campaign led by Missing Children Europe, in which EU Member States were encouraged to provide information about the systems for helping missing children. The reason for this was a growing concern about missing children and the underlying causes of the phenomenon.
For Finland, the cooperation began with an invitation from the Children´s Fundamental Rights association. Correct use of the emergency number 112 was chosen as the focus of the campaign, since in Finland the disappearance of minors and other emergencies involving minors must be reported to the emergency number.
The Keep Safe campaign was created, during which material was produced for schools, a set of 10 safety instructions for children in four languages (Finnish, Swedish, English, Sámi) was put together, teachers were supported in giving 112-themed lessons, and school visits were carried out. The campaign cooperated with the Safe City (“Turvallinen kaupunki”) project in Vaasa, which piloted safety lessons, as well as the Sámi Parliament, which helped bring safety instructions in the Sámi language to schools in the north.
– The campaign reached more than 20,000 children and young people. During the preparation of the final report of the campaign, it has become clear that safety work among children and young people needs to continue and be developed further. Many teachers said that they felt unsure about topics related to the emergency number, but providing ready-made teaching material and a preparatory lesson was seen as a good way to increase readiness for a 112-themed lesson, Tiainen says.
A survey was also conducted in conjunction with the safety lessons related to the campaign; it revealed that many children believe that only adults can call the emergency number 112. This, too, shows how important it is to provide information about safety even among the youngest children.
