Childline: ‘Race To A Milli’ challenge aimed at peer pressure, hateful comments and rage bait
More than half of all Childline counselling sessions delivered last year were with children experiencing mental health struggles – 82,882 counselling sessions took place on this topic between April 2024 and March 2025, that’s an average of almost 200 every day.
Counsellors heard young people were struggling with anxiety, some were self-harming, and there was an increase in the number of counselling sessions related to anger issues.
One girl, aged 15, told Childline: "I feel so anxious and overwhelmed. I want to talk about how I'm feeling but I don't know how. I even panic about having these feelings, it's so stupid.
“I worry about everything, school, not being good enough, what people think about me, and a lot of the time I know I'm worrying about nothing. I have to act as though everything is fine around everyone else; I bottle it all up then cry when I'm alone."
This week, Childline is launching a new campaign called ‘Race To A Milli’, funded by Lidl GB, which features TikTok stars competing to be the first to reach one million ‘likes’ by completing challenges.
What the contestants don’t know is that the tasks are a digital stress test, aimed at challenging their resilience to peer pressure, hateful comments and rage bait.
If you’re worried about a young person’s experiences from being online, there are things you can suggest too.
Encourage them to take regular breaks, and while they are online, to focus on how that activity makes them feel. If they notice themselves feeling anxious or stuck in a doom-scrolling cycle, just ten or 15 minutes offline can help reset their mood.
Remind them to talk about their feelings. Whether it’s to a family member, teacher or Childline counsellor, it can help them feel better.
Suggest they curate their online space, unfollow accounts that make them feel negative. Remind them the algorithm is trained by what they are viewing, so if they take control of their search and focus on positive material, they’re likely to be presented with more of the same.
Most importantly, remind them that asking for help is a strength, not a weakness, and that help is available whenever they need it.
Whatever their worry, they can speak to one of our trained Childline counsellors by phone or through the online chat.