More youth turning to online counselling because it offers anonymity

TNP PHOTO: JONATHAN CHOO

A trained counsellor at the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) – with a possible solution to your woes – can be just a few clicks away. And today's wired youth seem to be finding this a more suitable way to seek help.

Figures from SOS show that more troubled young are turning to its Email Befriending service. From April 2011 to March this year, SOS attended to 774 people who sent in 3,690 e-mails to the service, almost five times what it received five years ago.

And reasons for the increase? A more Internet-savvy younger generation and the anonymity offered by the service, say experts.