Approximately one in four Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students (27%) reported being bullied every few weeks or more often (considered to be frequent) in a national study in 2009.

Frequent school bullying was highest among Year 5 (32%) and Year 8 (29%) students.

83% of students who bully others online also bully others in person.

84% of students who were bullied online were also bullied in person.

Peers are present as onlookers in 85% of bullying interactions, and play a central role in the bullying process.

Hurtful teasing was the most prevalent of all bullying behaviours experienced by students, followed by having hurtful lies told about them.

Online bullying appears to be related to age (or access to technology), with secondary students more likely to engage in bullying online than primary school students

Young people over the age of 15 are less likely than students between 10 and 15 years of age to be involved in online bullying.

Approximately one in five young people under 18 (20%) reported experiencing online bullying in any one year. The figure of 20% has been extrapolated from a number of different studies which found rates varying from 6% to 44% of students.

School staff report an average of 2.1% reports per student of online bullying, with 1.2 per 100 for primary schools and 9.1 per 100 students for high schools.

The majority (72%) of schools reported managing at least one incident of online bullying in the previous year.

Bully Zero Research

In July 2022, Bully Zero, with the help of Standing Strong Clubs, conducted a nationwide survey about bullying. Young people across Australia between the ages of 7 and 17 were invited to take part in the research to help provide Bully Zero with insight into young people’s experiences around bullying in today’s climate.

Our findings from the research project indicated much higher figures around bullying than what is generally understood and accepted as the current statistics, such as those listed above. The research has allowed Bully Zero to collect valuable data to further develop existing bullying-prevention programs, as well as provide up-to-date statistics to educators, practitioners and the Australian community about the prevalence and impact of bullying. To view the Key Findings of this research project, download the report here.

---

References

Cross, D., Shaw, T., Hearn, L., Epstein, M., Monks, H., Lester, L., & Thomas, L. (2009). Australian covert bullying prevalence study.

IRIS Research. (2014). Estimates of cyber-bullying incidents dealt with by Australian schools.

Spears, B., Keeley, M., Bates, S., & Katz, I. (2014a). Research on youth exposure to, and management of, cyberbullying incidents in Australia: Part A ‒ Literature review on the estimated prevalence of cyberbullying involving Australian minors.

Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia 2010, Avoid the Harm - Stay Calm Report on the inquiry into the impact of violence on young Australians.

Department of Education and Training (2015). A review of literature (2010-2014) on student bullying by Australia’s Safe and Supportive School Communities Working Group .

Source: Bullying No Way