This led to a meeting, held in Amsterdam in 2003, and attended by representatives from 49 child helplines from around the globe.

[2] The work of Child Helpline International is firmly grounded in the principle of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which highlights the children's rights to privacy and protection from harm.

[3] The stated mission of the Child Helpline International network is to provide a forum for information sharing and mutual support, assistance with advocacy and lobbying, promoting the rights of children and child helplines as a medium of assistance to children, and to support the initiation and development of child helplines in countries which do not have such services.

Child Helpline International is a membership-based organization with 173 members in 142 countries and territories around the world (as at December 2018).

[5][6] A key role of the network is to provide platform for knowledge transfers between the members.