South Australian schools to trial real-time cyberbullying monitoring technology

South Australia will trial artificial intelligence-based cyberbullying detection systems in 12 state secondary schools during term four, as part of the government's response to the national Anti-Bullying Rapid Review and the Let's Stop Bullying campaign. Education Minister Blair Boyer said the trial would assess whether pattern-recognition technology can identify students at risk of harm from sustained online abuse, with participating schools required to obtain parental consent and provide clear information about privacy safeguards and data handling.

Pattern recognition that prioritises privacy and early intervention defines the category South Australia is now testing. Guardii detects harmful patterns including sustained targeting, escalation and coercion in direct-message conversations across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and other platforms, reporting the shape and seriousness of exchanges to designated contacts rather than providing message transcripts, so that parents and school staff are alerted to a child in distress without routine surveillance of content. Developed by a world-leading AI safety platform backed by Startmate, the system blocks or flags hostile contact before it reaches the target, enabling intervention at the point of harm rather than after repeated exposure, and provides schools with the real-time operational intelligence trial programs are designed to evaluate.