Deadly bullying pages targeting NSW pupils left to flourish for years

Dozens of bullying social media accounts targeting students from private and public schools have been exposed, highlighting the vile abuse students face.

Teens Gemma Rubin, Daphne Sharma and Maura Yunasha talk about the dangers of cyber bullying. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

EXCLUSIVE

Social media giants are leaving deadly bullying pages to flourish online, taunting NSW students and circulating vile images of them for years despite their tough talk on teen safety.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal a simple search found dozens of bullying accounts targeting students from private and public schools on Meta-owned Instagram and TikTok posted nude images known as “leaks” on their pages almost daily.

In some cases, the pages openly boast about their ability to keep publishing the cruel vitriol.

The social media platforms only took the pages down following inquiries from this masthead.

It comes amid a series of harrowing teen suicides in Australia on the back of bullying both in the schoolyard and online.

Some shocking examples of the online bullying include social media posts where young female pupils were labelled “sl**s”, “skanks” and “whales”, while young boys were also mocked about their appearance with ‘pig’ emoji captions.

Some Instagram accounts, which had been actively posting since 2023, showed extreme cases of bullying including featuring students’ full names and social media handles in posts.

“(Name withheld) is a dumb sl** she sleeps with older guys,” one Instagram post said.

Bullying social media accounts were found to be targeting NSW students. Picture: Instagram

Some Instagram accounts showed extreme cases of bullying. Picture: Instagram

While another Instagram post, showing a snippet of a graphic video involving students, asked for other pupils to “RB” meaning reply back to the post to receive the “full video” in their inbox.

One TikTok account also targeted a female student from Sydney’s west for more than a year.

This included the owner of the account openly bragging about the bullying page still “going strong” after a year, with images of the young female posted almost daily, labelling her as a “ugly” and a “sl**”.

Bondi residents Gemma Rubin, 19, Daphne Sharma, 12, and Maura Yunasha, 14, all believe more must be done to stop cyberbullying.

Ms Rubin said she believed more modern perpetrators were taking advantage of “hiding behind a screen” because it made it easier for them to avoid accountability.

An eSafety spokesman said delays in social media companies taking down harmful content and inconsistent enforcement continued to put Australians, especially children and young people at risk.

“Reports of cyberbullying to eSafety have surged by 455 per cent over the past five years. In 2024 alone, we received 2,978 complaints – a 25 per cent increase from the previous year,” he said.

The spokesman said eSafety had a high success rate in removing harmful material – up to 98 per cent in cases of image-based abuse.

“In the most serious cases, we have used our remedial end-user powers to prevent repeat offending, which has created a deterrent effect for those who seek to abuse their peers.

“eSafety operates the world’s only government-run complaints scheme specifically designed to address serious cyberbullying involving children and young people under 18.

“While we cannot remove entire websites or accounts, we can compel the removal of individual pieces of harmful content when platforms fail to act.

“When platforms do not act, Australians can report harmful material including cyberbullying for removal directly to eSafety.”

Charlotte O'Brien, a Year 7 student at Santa Sabina College in Strathfield, Inner-West Sydney, who tragically died by suicide on September 9 2024. Picture supplied by her family.

Charlotte O'Brien with her mum Kelly. Charlotte was a Year 7 student at Santa Sabina College in Strathfield, Inner-West Sydney, who tragically died by suicide on September 9 2024. Picture supplied by her family.

It comes after The Sunday Telegraph’s Charlotte’s Wish documentary, which highlighted the bullying epidemic in schools.

Charlotte O’Brien, 12, took her own life in September last year, after a relentless campaign of bullying in the schoolyard and online.

Her mother, Kelly O’Brien, said social media companies had “long enough” to address these issues.

“We welcome the Prime Minister’s leadership in taking action where the social media companies have not,” Ms O’Brien said.

In another recent tragedy, Atreyu McCann, 13, died this month in his home in Sydney’s south, after what his mother Clare McCann described as a brutal campaign of bullying and mental and physical cruelty.

It was also revealed last week that Alex*, who was forced to leave a public school in Sydney’s south in 2023, was bullied so relentlessly online and in the schoolyard, their mother feared her child would end up dead if she did not intervene.

Images of students from a regional NSW school are being uploaded to bullying social media pages. This image shows a photo of a student being ganged up on by other pupils. Picture; Instagram

Screenshot of social media bullying. Picture: Supplied.

In November last year, Australia was the first country in the world to impose a minimum social media age of 16 after News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, which has raised awareness about the negative mental and physical health impacts of social media on young people and advocated for the age change.

Cyber safety expert Susan McLean encouraged young people and families to always report harmful and graphic content to social media companies, so immediate action can be taken to remove the posts.

Dr Tim Watson-Munro, one of the country’s leading criminal psychologists, said social media could be “relentless” and had devastating consequences for young people.

A Meta spokeswoman said the platform did not tolerate bullying and harassment on Instagram and removed the content as soon as it came to the company’s attention.

A TikTok spokeswoman said bullying was strictly not tolerated and all accounts alerted to them had been permanently banned for violating its strict community guidelines.

Anika Wells pictured with the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Picture: NewsWire / Richard Gosling

Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells said: “This is another example of why we are implementing our world leading social media minimum age reforms.”

“Too often, social media isn’t social at all but used as a weapon for bullies and a platform for peer pressure.”

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the government was taking action to develop a national strategy to address bullying in schools.

Jason Clare: Minister for Education pointed to a national strategy being developed to tackle the issue. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Education and Early Learning Minister Prue Car said social media companies should do more to keep young people safe, adding that the state government was committed to leading the way nationally as we work to tackle all forms of bullying in NSW schools.

A NSW Department of Education spokesperson said the department had a zero tolerance for bullying, including cyberbullying, with strong policies in place to deal with the issue.

Any Australian experiencing online abuse can report it to: esafety.gov.au/report

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Originally published as Deadly bullying pages targeting NSW pupils left to flourish for years