Young people brought up in the digital era are increasingly reluctant to make phone calls – a recent UK study found 30% of people aged between 16 and 29 feared picking up the phone.

Yet many avenues for children and young people living with family abuse still direct them to dial a helpline number in the first instance, rather than to use a text or web chat option they might find more familiar.

Now the Victorian family support service Safe Steps is proposing a dedicated national support service, known for now as the support multiverse, to act as a digital front door for young people seeking help.

The group director of business growth at Safe Steps, Suzanne Paynter, says it’s vital to listen to young people so that “we don’t continue to build systems by adults for adults”.

Safe Steps, the only statewide 24/7 service for anyone who is afraid of, experiencing and escaping domestic abuse, says almost half the people it provides services to (43%) are children or young people accompanying an adult.

“We know that more than 40% of young people under the age of 16 are exposed to domestic and family violence, and that’s devastating,” Paynter says.

“What we have identified … is that children and young people are telling us it’s not clear for them where to find help that’s relevant to them.”

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The support multiverse is intended to give young people channels to engage directly with support in the online spaces they already visit, such as social media, online games, forums and messaging applications.

“Ultimately what we are asking for, and what we recommend, is that first and foremost we embark on an authentic national co-design of the multiverse because the input from young people is what’s needed to ensure that we don’t continue to build systems by adults for adults,” Paynter says.

Cristyn Davies, a senior research fellow in child and adolescent health at the University of Sydney, says young people face significant barriers to seeking help, and current systems rarely reflect how adolescents communicate.

“A youth-friendly digital model like the support multiverse could open earlier and safer pathways to support, especially for young people who feel isolated, frightened or unsure where to turn,” Davies says.

“It aligns with what we know works: strong youth co-design, developmentally appropriate information and accessible trusted digital spaces.”

She warns that the social media ban for under-16s could cut young people off from information and support, because for some, social media is one of the few places they can quietly find help or connect with peers.

And, she says, “digital entry points must be backed by investment in specialist, trauma-informed services offline so young people have real pathways to safety when they reach out”.

The need for real-world services to complement a digital resource is underlined by Prof Cathy Humphreys, who is part of a children and domestic violence abuse research team at the University of Melbourne.

She says there is no good stream of funding nationally or at a state level that provides support for children and young people trying to escape family abuse.

“There are some refuges that are funded to support children and young people and you would think, given they’re half the users of those refuges, that there would be a funded specialist worker for children, but in fact there are many refuges that don’t have a funded children’s worker,” Humphreys says.

There is “very little available” for children and young people who have disconnected from their families, she says, which is “such a gap in the service system”.

• In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org