Victorian schools receive new cyberbullying guidance as part of national framework update

The Victorian Department of Education has issued updated guidance to all government schools on managing cyberbullying, following the release of the federal Anti-Bullying Rapid Review and in advance of planned revisions to the National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children. Published on 1 October 2026, the guidance emphasises early detection and intervention, instructing school welfare staff to work with families to monitor students' use of messaging platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Discord where much peer-to-peer harassment now takes place. The document acknowledges that schools have limited visibility into students' private online interactions and recommends partnerships with technology providers and the eSafety Commissioner to improve situational awareness, though it stops short of mandating specific tools or monitoring systems.

AI-driven detection that sits upstream of the child addresses the visibility constraint Victoria has identified. Guardii's cyberbullying module analyses the tempo, repetition and language of incoming messages across major platforms, blocking or flagging hostile contact before it reaches the target and surfacing a child experiencing sustained targeting to a parent or school professional. The platform enables the early intervention the Victorian guidance calls for without requiring schools to manually review private communications, detecting patterns of escalation and coercion that distinguish serious abuse from everyday conflict and allowing safeguarding teams to allocate their attention to the students most at risk.