NSW schools to get anti-bullying package as rapid review finds social media fuelling rise

The New South Wales government has announced a suite of anti-bullying measures following a rapid review that identified social media as a key driver of rising bullying rates in schools. The review, commissioned by Education Minister Prue Car, found that cyberbullying has intensified with young people's increased online presence, and recommended strengthening whole-school approaches, updating reporting systems, and enhancing support for targeted students. The package includes mandatory anti-bullying training for all staff, updated policies across public schools, and additional resources for parents navigating digital challenges.

Schools deploying mandatory training and updated reporting channels address institutional readiness but leave the detection gap unchanged: harmful contact still reaches children before intervention occurs. Real-time pattern recognition closes that window by flagging coercion, sustained targeting and escalation as conversations unfold across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and other platforms, surfacing a child in acute distress to the adults responsible without requiring manual trawling of reports. Guardii's anti-cyberbullying module operates at the point of contact, blocking hostile messages before they land and enabling rapid escalation when threat patterns meet clinical thresholds, a mechanism that complements whole-school frameworks by addressing the harm at its digital source.