Safe
Bullying
It can be hard being a child, and even harder fitting in with peers. When you send your child to day care or school, you expect that they will be cared for in a safe and friendly environment. Bullying and harassment can occur to anybody, bullies do not necessarily target their victim based on race or gender. Encourage your child to tell you if they are being bullied. Discuss the bullying with your child’s carer or teacher. If your child has been identified as a bully, discuss strategies with the school and whether counselling is required.
Forms of bullying and harassment include:
Exclusion – deliberately leaving someone out because of dislike. Not everybody has to like everybody else, however, many situations, particularly at school, call for children to play in teams together or conduct classroom tasks in pairs or groups. Bullies can exclude a child from taking part in a group craft activity by not sharing items or ignoring creative suggestions, or in a sports game by not allowing a ball to be passed to a child.
Physical – unwanted and aggressive contact by picking a fight, hitting, kicking, punching, biting or pulling hair.
Racial – derogatory remarks or jokes about race, features or skin colour.
Sexual – derogatory remarks, jokes or name calling about gender, body shape and size, innuendo and gossip.
Threats – forcing others into actions, behaviours or discussions by threatening often with another form of bullying (i.e. physical, gossip or exclusion). Using peer pressure to force an unwilling individual to take part in a group activity (such as smoking or teasing somebody else).
Verbal – teasing and name calling, sometimes about gender or race, sometimes about appearance and often just to single out a quiet or non-conforming child.
Visual – visibly displaying offensive text or images which may be targeting an individual, gender, race, religion or other group, often in the form of graffiti, on clothing, posters or bags.
Featured safety resources
 Wherever you are in Australia, these featured resources are available nationally.
Please navigate through the subsections above to find more local or specific contacts.
Safe services
Safe products
Safe resources
Safety at home
Safe environment
Safe in the sun
Safety online
National contacts
This is a brief list of organisations listed throughout the Safe section, which provide a national emergency or safety service. For specific services or to see what’s available in a local area please browse the subsections in the menu above.
000 Triple Zero emergency
Ambulance, Fire, Police
Poisons Information
24 hour
State Emergency Services
24 hour
Translating and Interpreting Service
24 hour
State and local areas
Alcoholics Anonymous
24 hour
Crime Stoppers
24 hour
Kids Help Line
24 hour
Lifeline
24 hour
Emergency contact list
View details and download
Identifying abuse and
mandatory reporting
Also see >
Emergency and advice
– Contacts and resources
Healthy
– Counselling
Nurtured
– Relationships
Acknowledgement of Country
In the spirit of reconciliation Children's Guide acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.