New laws to tackle serious bullying in schools and workplaces have been recommended by legal experts and the Australian Federal Police.
The recommendations, endorsed at a national summit on bullying in Melbourne, propose the criminalisation of bullying behaviour.
Some of the proposed new laws would specifically address what's become known as cyberbullying - that is, bullying by use of the internet.
Thisanka Siripala reports.
"I definitely think there is a possibility for a criminal space you could address this in. But I think it has to come with an awareness of the lack of knowledge on kids parts of what they're actually doing and the conseqences that it can have". //" I guess there should be some type of judicial system because of all the new technology a lot of people spend alot of time on the internet. So I guess some maybe fines or something like that when it's proven". // " If it did go through a legal system I'd want to see that the process that the children were going through had a very high success rate. I just feel like the kids need to be reprimanded for what they do". //" Parents should be involved, so I dunno the police get the parents involved and they should discipline, but if it is continuous and repeatitive then it should definitely be taken seriously". // "First they should be found, so they know who it actually is and their parents would like ground them or something, take their i-pads i mean their phones, i phones and stuff away from them and if it's really really mean they can actually take them to the police."
It's difficult to assess the extent of bullying in Australia - but experts working to reduce it say current laws don't treat the problem seriously enough.
The Chair of the National Centre Against Bullying, Alistair Nicholson, wants serious bullying and cyber bullying incidents to be criminal offences.
He says when adults are involved, the penalties should include prison sentences.
Mr Nicholson says young bullies should also face penalties, though he stops short of advocating prison.
"There should be a simple offence of bullying which would become a criminal offence. But in the case of young people it would not involve any imprisonment or detention but there would be other sanctions and of course for adults it may well involve a penalty of imprisonment but it should be reserved for serious cases."
Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner, Michael Phelan, agrees that more should be done to reduce bullying behaviour.
Mr Phelan agrees that inconsistencies in state, territory and federal laws are obstacles.
"Common laws or laws that are harmonised across all of the states and territories would make it easier for law enforcement to be able to do their job. But also more importantly parents and those in positions of authority and influence over children will have a set of laws that everybody knows what's right and what's wrong."
Superintendent Murray Fraser from Victoria Police says the federal government has written to the states recommending they adopt laws similar to that of Victoria.
"In Victoria we have specific bullying legislation which has been effective for the last two years known as Brodie's Law and that is a good tool for law enforcement when you're dealing with a situation that just got very serious. And generally we believe that the best way to achieve nationally consistent legislation is for each state to implement their own legislation that is based on a model".
Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan says although law reforms would help, it would be better to try to prevent severe bullying and cyberbullying incidents.
He emphasises that schools, workplaces, communities and parents should all be involved in trying to stamp out bullying before it causes harm.
"The police's role is very much around intervening into issues before they get too bad. Law enforcement involvement is obviously the last resort for any of us in relation to bullying where they be cyber or actual bullying. What we try and do as police officers is to divert people in the first instance to work through the issues and try and come to a solution because in the majority of times, victims and there are real victims here, really just want the behaviour to stop."
Mr Phelan says with cyberbullying, often young people are not aware of the damaging consequences of their behaviour.
"Some of the issues particularly with young people in the cyberbullying space is that they're not entirely aware some people of the consequence of their action because they're operating in the virtual space. Some people don't realise there are actually victims at the other end and some of the thing they can do can be extremely hurtful and can lead to some disastrous consequences, so that's a very big issue."
Sexting, which refers to sexually explicit messages or pictures sent through mobile phones or the internet without consent, is also posing legal challenges.
Alistair Nicholson, from the National Centre Against Bullying, says new laws covering specific cyber bullying offences should recognise the difference between the sharing of images between young people and paedophiles.
"There should be a separate offence for sexting but that should only apply where photographs or other material were sent without the consent of the people involved. Otherwise it should be okay to send material between young people provided there should be an offence to the child pornography sections if there were communications between two young people less than two years apart in age over 16 so that really deals with the 16 to 18 year old group".
Alistair Nicholson says in multicultural Australia, young people from migrant or refugee backgrounds may be particularly vulnerable to bullying.
"One of the problems with bullying is always that it singles out anyone who is different and it is certainly possible in those circumstances that bullying and cyberbullying would be directed at refugees in particular and asylum seekers given the degree of concern and political noise about it."
Mr Nicholson says he'd also like to see the establishment of a federal digital communication tribunal in Australia.
He says this tribunal should be given powers to quickly act on complaints, and to remove offensive material off websites anywhere in Australia.
