Cyberbullying and the back-to-school surge: How we can protect our kids

As Australian students return to school, many are not just navigating new classrooms and teachers — but also a digital world with increasingly complex challenges.

New data from eSafety shows a staggering 450 per cent rise in cyberbullying reports over the past five years, with children transitioning to secondary school accounting for more than a third of all cases.

As students explore friendships and managing social groups at school, these interactions increasingly spill into the online world. Social media, gaming platforms, and messaging apps become digital battlegrounds where exclusion, harassment, and public shaming play out, especially as they learn to manage emotional self-regulation both interpersonally and online.   

The greatest parenting challenge of our time

The internet offers children valuable opportunities to connect with peers, play, learn, be entertained, be creative and seek information. Yet going online also poses risks to children, including cyberbullying and exposure to harmful material.  

Enabling young people to develop the skills they need to thrive in an increasingly digital world, while also feeling supported to safely navigate risks and avoid being harmed, is one of the greatest parenting challenges of our time.

At eSafety, we know this better than most. As Australia’s national online safety educator, coordinator and regulator, the cornerstone of eSafety’s work is education – providing parents, carers and teachers with advice and resources to better support children and young people to be safe online.  

That’s why, launching today is a back-to-school community awareness campaign aimed at increasing understanding among parents of cyberbullying.  

Included is advice and tips on how to talk with your child before cyberbullying occurs, and what to do if you think your child is being cyberbullied, real stories, and advice for young people. Also scheduled throughout February are a series of eSafety webinars for parents exploring the social pressures and other challenges young people face as they transition to secondary school.  

For educators, we’ve developed a suite of resources to assist teachers integrate cyberbullying awareness into their curriculums, while our professional development opportunities cover the latest online safety research, case studies and teaching strategies to support teachers in the classroom.

How to support a child experiencing cyberbullying  

It’s more important than ever that parents, carers and schools have the skills to talk to children and young people about their online experiences (both good and bad) and let them know they can come to you for help.  

Our research shows the majority (two thirds) of young people will tell a parent when something negative happens online, and children and young people are better able to cope with cyberbullying when they have the support of at least one trusted adult.  

If your child is experiencing online hate or bullying, resist the urge to take away their devices – that can mean they miss out on important experiences and can make social isolation worse.

Help your child collect evidence like screenshots, or show them how to report abuse to the game, app or social media service where it’s happening.  

If the cyberbullying is severe and the platform doesn’t help, report to eSafety and we can help remove content online and provide additional support.  

You can also support your child to get help from counselling services like Kids Helpline.  

Even as we work towards effectively implementing the social media minimum age legislation, talking to your child about their online experiences remains as important as ever.  

Parents and carers can help young people by talking openly about the age restrictions, finding out how they currently use social media and how that may be impacted by the new law, as well as encouraging them to seek help if they need further support for their health and wellbeing.

If parents can take away one message as you start the school year, it’s don’t wait for an incident to occur to have a conversation with your child about cyberbullying. Early conversations about online safety will provide your child with the social and emotional skills needed to reduce the risks and make our communities safer for all.