Cyberbullying

eSafety helps prevent and deal with cyberbullying and its impacts. We do this by providing information, education and resources, and by investigating and helping to fix the most serious cases of cyberbullying.

On this page:

• What is cyberbullying?
• What you can do
• Find out more including how eSafety can help and how to report a complaint
• Download the cyberbullying quick guide

(Please note: the resources including the video were made prior to the introduction of social media age restrictions and are being updated. The resources can still help you support young people to have safer online experiences.)

Cyberbullying is when someone is mean to a person online so they feel bad or upset.

The bullying usually happens in content sent to the person, or posted or shared about them, through a messaging app, online game, social media (if the user is old enough to have an account) or another online or electronic service or platform. It can include posts, comments, texts, messages, chats, livestreams, memes, images, videos and emails.

These are some examples of ways the internet can be used to make someone feel bad or upset:

• sending hurtful messages about them or to them
• sharing embarrassing photos or videos of them, including sexual content
• recording and sharing physical abuse, violence or harassment
• spreading nasty online gossip about them
• leaving them out online
• creating fake accounts in their name
• tricking them into believing you are someone else.

Sadly, cyberbullying happens a lot in Australia and around the world.

44% of Australian young people report having a negative online experience in the past 6 months, this includes 15% who received threats or abuse online.

_{Source: The digital lives of Aussie teens, eSafety Commissioner (2021).}
 

This means the content sent to you, or posted or shared about you, must be likely to harm your physical or mental health because it is seriously:

• threatening (for example, when someone says they are going to harm you, or tells others to harm you) or
• intimidating (for example, when you stop doing something because someone makes you feel scared or bad about it) or
• harassing (for example, when someone keeps sending messages to you or keeps sharing posts or comments about you even though you don’t want them to) or
• humiliating (for example, when someone teases or embarrasses you very badly).

If someone is cyberbullying you in one of these ways you can report it to eSafety, or you can ask a trusted adult to do it for you. The adult can be a parent or guardian, or someone like a carer, teacher or police officer.

If you are a parent or guardian you can report serious cyberbullying to eSafety yourself – if you know your child has been targeted by harmful content, and the site, game or app has not helped.

If you are being bullied or harassed in the workplace, you can visit our section on workplace bullying for more help and resources.

If you are neurodivergent, you can find tips to help you feel safer and more confident online.

If the content is seriously harmful, and the service or platform does not help, a child or young person under 18 (or an adult they have authorised to help them) can report it to eSafety using our online form.

Report now

You can download and print our quick guide about cyberbullying, which has key information from this website. This guide is also available in Arabic, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese and Vietnamese.