Most people think they’ll know cyberbullying when they see it. In practice, the cases that cause the most damage are often the ones that don’t look like much on their own — a group chat that quietly excludes someone, a screenshot passed around with one cruel caption, a “joke” account that never says anything you could point to as clearly wrong. Taken one at a time, each piece looks almost defensible. Together, they can wreck someone’s week, term, or year.
This article covers what actually counts as cyberbullying under Australian law, the forms it commonly takes, and — in detail — exactly how and where to report it, whether the person affected is a child, a teenager, an adult, or someone being targeted at work.
What cyberbullying actually is
There’s a difference between the everyday sense of the word and the legal one, and the gap matters because it determines what help is actually available.
In everyday use, cyberbullying is any repeated, deliberate unkindness carried out using technology — email, text, social media, gaming platforms, group chats.
Under Australian law, it’s narrower and more specific. The Online Safety Act 2021 defines cyberbullying material as online communication to or about a child that is:
- seriously threatening,
- seriously intimidating,
- seriously harassing, or
- seriously humiliating.
The word “seriously” is doing real legal work in that sentence. A single mean comment, an unfollow, a bit of banter that stings — none of that meets the threshold on its own. What the law is built for is content designed to seriously hurt a specific person, and it can include posts, comments, texts, emails, memes, images and videos.
For adults, the equivalent is adult cyber abuse: online material that’s both menacing, harassing or offensive, and posted with the intention of causing the targeted adult serious harm — meaning a real, likely negative impact on their mental or physical health, not just hurt feelings. That threshold is set deliberately high. It has to be, so the law doesn’t end up policing bad reviews, strong opinions, or garden-variety online arguments — only genuine, targeted abuse.
Knowing this distinction matters because it shapes what you can realistically ask a regulator to do, and it explains why some cruel behaviour that everyone would call “bullying” doesn’t legally qualify for a takedown order — while other behaviour absolutely does.
What it actually looks like
The obvious cases are the ones already covered in awareness campaigns — direct threats, pile-ons, repeated abusive messages. Those matter, but they’re not usually the ones people are unsure about. The genuinely common, harder-to-name patterns are these:
- Exclusion. Being deliberately left out of a group chat, gaming lobby, or shared story/tag — especially when it’s done visibly, so the person knows it’s happening on purpose.
- Impersonation. A fake account created in someone’s name or likeness, used to post embarrassing or false things as if they were the real person.
- Doxxing. Publishing someone’s address, phone number, school, or workplace online, usually to invite harassment from strangers.
- Screenshotting and re-sharing. Taking something said in a private or semi-private space (a Snapchat, a group chat, a Discord server) and re-posting it publicly, stripped of context, for others to pile on.
- Trickery. Pretending to be someone’s friend to extract private information, images, or admissions — then using them.
- Rating and shaming pages. Anonymous accounts or polls built specifically to rank, mock, or vote on people.
- Sextortion. Threatening to share an intimate image unless the person pays money or sends more images. This is a fast-growing and particularly dangerous category — it is a form of blackmail, and it is a crime.
- Pile-ons. Dozens or hundreds of individually “minor” comments that, in volume, become overwhelming. Painfully, this is also one of the hardest patterns for a regulator to act on, because no single comment may cross the legal threshold on its own even though the cumulative effect clearly does.
- Workplace cyberbullying. Exclusion from work Slack/Teams channels, being cc’d out of decisions to be humiliated later, screenshots of private messages shared to embarrass a colleague, or a manager sending an intimidating volume of after-hours messages.
If you’re unsure whether something you’ve experienced or witnessed “counts” — report it anyway. eSafety would rather assess a borderline case and explain why it doesn’t meet the threshold than have someone stay silent because they weren’t sure.
How common this actually is
The scale, particularly among children, is worth sitting with for a moment.
In a nationally representative 2024–25 survey of 3,454 Australian children aged 10 to 17, more than half — 53% — had been cyberbullied at some point, and 38% had experienced it in the past 12 months. The rate is dramatically higher for some groups: 81% of trans and gender-diverse children had experienced cyberbullying, as had 74% of sexually diverse teens.
eSafety received 3,406 cyberbullying complaints targeting Australian children in the 2024–25 financial year, up 26% on the 2,693 complaints the year before. Reports have climbed more than 450% over five years, and in the most recent full year measured, 46% of complaints involved children aged 13 or younger.
On the adult side, the numbers tell a different story — not because adult cyber abuse is rare, but because the legal bar is so high. In the 2022–23 financial year, eSafety received 2,516 complaints relating to adult cyber abuse — but 877 of those related to reputational harm, which in almost all cases did not meet the legal threshold. That’s not eSafety being unhelpful; it’s the deliberate design of a scheme built to protect free speech alongside genuine victims. It does mean, though, that adults facing serious online abuse should expect a real assessment against the legal definition, not an automatic takedown.
The three official reporting pathways (Australia)
This is the part that trips people up most, because there isn’t one “report cyberbullying” button — there are three separate legislated schemes, each with its own rules, and picking the right one saves real time.
1. Cyberbullying Scheme — for a child or young person under 18
Use this when the person targeted is under 18 and the material is seriously threatening, intimidating, harassing or humiliating.
Before you report to eSafety, you must first report to the platform the content was posted or sent on (Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, the game itself, etc.). This isn’t bureaucratic box-ticking — it’s often the fastest way to get something removed, and eSafety needs to see that step was tried first before it can compel action.
If the platform doesn’t act, or the situation is serious enough, report directly to eSafety at esafety.gov.au. Once a valid notice is issued, platforms are required to remove the material within 24 hours.
eSafety typically responds within two working days (they don’t work weekends, so a Friday report may not get a response until the following week). If what happened doesn’t technically meet the legal threshold, eSafety will still check the young person is safe, offer protective tips, and connect them to further support.
2. Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme — for anyone 18 or over
Use this when the person targeted is an adult and the content is menacing, harassing or offensive, and appears intended to cause serious harm — not simply unpleasant, embarrassing, or unflattering.
The same sequence applies: report to the platform first. For eSafety to investigate, the harmful content must have already been reported to the service or platform used to send, post or share it.
The Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme is explicitly not intended to regulate hurt feelings, purely reputational damage, bad online reviews, strong opinions, or banter — so before reporting, it’s worth honestly asking whether what happened is genuinely abusive, or simply unpleasant. Both are worth naming; only one is within eSafety’s power to act on.
3. Image-Based Abuse Scheme — for anyone, any age
Use this when someone has shared, or is threatening to share, an intimate image or video of a person without their consent. This covers so-called “revenge porn” and sexual extortion (“sextortion”).
This is the one scheme where you don’t need to report to the platform first — if you’re experiencing image-based abuse and you’re not being blackmailed, you can report it to eSafety immediately.
If blackmail is involved: if the person targeted is under 18, the fastest path is the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE); if they’re 18 or older, report to the platform and to eSafety. Once a report is made, eSafety checks in on the person’s wellbeing first, then works with the platform to remove the content and stop further threats — sometimes including account removal or fines against the person responsible.
One important practical note that applies to all three schemes: capture evidence before reporting. Screenshot the content, the profile or account it came from, and the date and time — because once it’s removed (which is the goal), that proof disappears too, and you may need it later for police or legal purposes.
A fourth path: workplace cyberbullying
None of the three eSafety schemes above are built for ongoing bullying by a colleague or manager — that sits with a different regulator entirely.
If you’re being bullied at work — including through Slack, Teams, email or texts from a colleague — and internal processes haven’t resolved it, you can apply to the Fair Work Commission for a stop-bullying order under the Fair Work Act. The Commission will start dealing with an application within 14 days, usually beginning with conciliation. The application fee for 2026–27 is $92.70, though it can be waived in cases of financial hardship. The Commission can only make an order if there’s an ongoing risk of the bullying continuing — it can’t award compensation, and it can’t act if the people involved have already parted ways. If you’re not covered by the national system (for example, some state public sector or unincorporated-business employees), your state or territory workplace relations body handles it instead.
Quick reference — which scheme, and where
| Situation | Scheme | Report to platform first? | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child/teen under 18 being seriously threatened, harassed or humiliated online | Cyberbullying Scheme | Yes | esafety.gov.au |
| Adult targeted by menacing/harassing content intended to cause serious harm | Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme | Yes | esafety.gov.au |
| Intimate image shared or threatened without consent (any age) | Image-Based Abuse Scheme | No — report immediately | esafety.gov.au |
| Sextortion/blackmail involving an intimate image, target under 18 | — | — | ACCCE |
| Ongoing bullying by a colleague or manager | Stop-bullying order | Try internal process first | Fair Work Commission |
| Immediate danger or risk of harm | — | — | Triple Zero (000) |
What to do right now, step by step
- Don’t respond or retaliate. It rarely helps, and it can complicate a later report by muddying who did what.
- Screenshot everything — the content, the account, the date and time — before it can be deleted or the account goes private.
- Report to the platform using its in-app reporting tool (required first step for two of the three schemes above).
- Block, but don’t delete the evidence. Blocking stops ongoing contact; deleting the evidence removes your ability to prove what happened.
- Report to the right scheme using the table above.
- Tell someone. A parent, trusted adult, manager, or friend — not because you need permission to report, but because carrying this alone makes it heavier than it needs to be.
- If there’s any risk of immediate harm, call 000. eSafety and the other schemes are not emergency services.
If you’re supporting someone else
If a child, friend, or colleague tells you they’re being cyberbullied, what they need first is rarely a lecture on evidence-gathering — it’s to feel believed and not blamed. A few things worth knowing:
- Don’t demand they hand over their phone or delete the app. It can feel like punishment for reporting the problem, and it cuts them off from their support network along with the bully.
- Ask what they want to happen, rather than immediately deciding for them. Involve them in the reporting process where appropriate — it restores some of the control that’s been taken from them.
- You can report on someone else’s behalf. eSafety accepts reports from a person who is authorised to report for the person targeted — a parent for a child, for instance.
- Recognise that most people who cyberbully also bully offline. It’s rarely an isolated, purely-online phenomenon, which is worth keeping in mind if the same person shows up in other parts of the targeted person’s life.
Official Australian resources
- eSafety Commissioner — report cyberbullying, adult cyber abuse, or image-based abuse; extensive guides for parents, educators and young people
- Bullying. No Way! — Australian Government hub focused on school-based bullying prevention and response
- Fair Work Commission — stop-bullying orders for workplace bullying, including online/text-based bullying by colleagues
- Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) — for sextortion and child exploitation involving anyone under 18
- ReportCyber — report cybercrime, including threats and harassment that may also be criminal offences, to Australian police
- Kids Helpline — free, confidential 24/7 counselling for ages 5–25. Call 1800 55 1800
- headspace — national youth mental health support, ages 12–25. Call 1800 650 890
- 1800RESPECT — support for image-based abuse connected to an abusive relationship, and domestic/family violence more broadly. Call 1800 737 732
Being targeted online is not a sign that you did something to deserve it, and it’s not something you’re expected to just absorb because it happened on a screen instead of in person. The law now treats serious online abuse as seriously as it deserves to be treated — the schemes above exist because Australia decided this was worth building real, enforceable protection for. Use them.
Over to you: if you’ve been through a report to eSafety, the Fair Work Commission, or your school — what actually happened, and what do you wish you’d known before you started? Real accounts of the process help the next person walk in prepared.
This article covers Australian law and reporting pathways. If you’re reading from outside Australia, your platform’s in-app reporting still applies, and most countries have an equivalent body — search “[your country] cyberbullying report” or ask in the community for pointers.