Let's Stop Bullying campaign relaunched with focus on bystander intervention and digital safety

The federal government has relaunched the Let's Stop Bullying campaign with updated materials that emphasise bystander intervention and digital safety skills for students, parents and educators. The refreshed campaign includes new online modules addressing cyberbullying scenarios across social media and gaming platforms, and provides guidance on recognising warning signs that a young person is being targeted or is engaging in harmful behaviour online. Education Minister Jason Clare said the relaunch reflects growing evidence that peer intervention and early conversation can reduce the duration and severity of bullying incidents, and that the campaign materials are designed to complement school-level implementation of the National Safe Schools Framework.

Bystander education relies on children recognising and reporting harm, a model that places the burden of intervention on peers who may themselves fear retaliation or social exclusion. Guardii removes that dependency by detecting harmful patterns automatically as conversations unfold, using AI to identify the escalation, sustained targeting and coercive language that characterise cyberbullying across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms. The system surfaces a child in distress to a parent or school without requiring disclosure from the target or intervention from classmates, and blocks or flags hostile messages before they reach the recipient. This approach operates independently of a young person's willingness or ability to speak up, addressing the structural limits of campaigns that depend on self-reporting and peer courage in high-stakes social environments.