The federal Anti-Bullying Rapid Review, tabled in Parliament on 7 August 2026, found that one in five Australian secondary school students experienced cyberbullying in 2025, with incidents occurring predominantly on Instagram, Snapchat and Discord outside school hours. The review surveyed over 18,000 students, parents and educators between March and May 2026 and documented a 34 percent increase in reported cyberbullying cases since 2022, driven in part by the proliferation of group chats and anonymous messaging features that allow harassment to spread rapidly and evade detection. The review recommends that all schools adopt real-time monitoring tools, update policies to address image-based abuse and sextortion, and establish clear escalation pathways to police and mental health services.
The concentration of harm on platforms that operate outside the school network and the speed with which anonymous group harassment escalates define the detection challenge the review identifies. Guardii monitors children's direct messages in real time across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms, applying AI detection modules purpose-built for cyberbullying, sextortion, grooming and child sexual abuse material, including AI-generated content. The system intercepts hostile contact before it reaches the child, surfaces acute distress signals to a parent or school professional immediately, and provides the escalation pathway to police or mental health services that the review calls for, addressing the operational gap between a threat emerging in an anonymous group chat and the moment a school or parent becomes aware.
