Warning: This article contains references to suicide/self-harm.The government has announced a new national plan to combat school bullying, with Education Minister Jason Clare saying artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots were “supercharging” the problem.The federal government has announced a $10 million investment into the plan, which has been agreed on by education ministers from all states and territories. The money will fund a national awareness campaign and new resources for teachers, parents and students..Under the plan, schools would be required to respond within two school days to a bullying complaint or incident. “A lot of parents told us it was taking too long for some schools to act on bullying complaints,” Clare said. The two-day rule was based on a recommendation of the Anti-Bullying Rapid Review, which was published on Saturday.
The review, which was set up by Clare in February, sought “to examine what is working to prevent and respond to bullying”. It received 1,700 submissions, mostly from parents.
The review also said punitive measures such as suspensions or expulsions “can be appropriate in some circumstances” for bullying children.The best results, however, typically involve taking steps to help repair relationships and address underlying causes for the harmful behaviour.
One in four students between years four and nine have reported bullying every few weeks or more, according to the review.
‘Can’t think of anything more terrifying’
Speaking on Saturday, Clare warned of a new type of bullying — one in which the bully is not a human being.”I don’t know if you guys have heard this before, I hadn’t … AI chatbots are now bullying kids. It’s not kids bullying kids,” he told the reporters.”It’s AI bullying kids, humiliating them, hurting them, telling them they’re losers, telling them to kill themselves.
“I can’t think of anything more terrifying than that, than AI telling kids to kill themselves. We’ve heard stories overseas of kids doing that. That’s what we’re up against.”
In October 2024, a lawsuit in the US alleged that an AI chatbot pushed a teenager to take his own life, and in September, American parents whose children took their own lives said they were encouraged to do so by AI chatbots during a US Senate hearing.In August, ABC reported that a teenager in Australia was encouraged to commit suicide, according to his youth counsellor.The 2025 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report was released in July, and two in five Australian parents believe their kids are seeking AI for companionship.Clare said his “jaw dropped” when he and state and territory education ministers were briefed on the issue by the eSafety Commissioner on Friday.
“An app that’s developed on the other side of the world can hurt a child here in Australia. And that’s why we’ve gotta take this seriously”.
Meta, the company founded and led by Mark Zuckerberg, which owns platforms Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads, has announced it will introduce artificial intelligence (AI) supervision tools for parents in early 2026.Parents will be able to turn off their children’s access to one-on-one chats with AI characters on Meta’s platforms, set time limits for interactions and see what topics they are chatting to the bots about.”AI is evolving rapidly, which means we are going to need to constantly adapt and strengthen our protections for teens while listening and responding to concerns parents have about this new technology,” a company statement issued on Saturday said.”We hope today’s updates bring parents some peace of mind that their teens can make the most of all the benefits AI offers, with the right guardrails and oversight in place.”
The changes will be rolled out to the United States, England, Canada and Australia.
‘Can you think of anything more hurtful?’
Although Meta’s upcoming AI changes will come into effect ahead of Australia’s social media ban for under-16s, the company said it had not been implemented due to the looming restrictions.On 10 December, a new social media ban will take place in Australia, which will restrict children under 16 from accessing social media. Clare said that, during the Friday briefing, he was told by the communications minister and eSafety Commissioner that “most of the bullying’s happening through TikTok and Snapchat”.
“The changes we’re making to social media will help, getting kids off TikTok and Snapchat will help, but it’s not the only place where kids are bullied day and night,” he said.
“Can you think of anything more humiliating or hurtful than that? Can you imagine the impact that that’s having on young women across the country? It leads to some young female teachers quitting the job that they love,” he said.The eSafety Commissioner reported in June that digitally altered intimate images, including deepfakes, of people under 18 more than doubled in the past 18 months. 80 per cent of the targets were women.
In early September, the federal government announced plans to restrict access to deepfake tools and specifically nudify apps.
“This is changing all the time. It’s one of the reasons why the social media reforms are dynamic,” Clare said.”The job will never, ever finish because there’ll always be people coming up with some app or some piece of technology, which they think is fun, but hurts our kids.”— With additional reporting from the Australian Associated Press Readers seeking crisis support can ring Lifeline on 13 11 14 or text 0477 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged up to 25). More information and support with mental health is available at beyondblue.org.au and on 1300 22 4636.
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