Figures from the Kids Helpline Crisis Service show that children as young as ten are experiencing serious mental health distress because of bullying at school. The data coincides with a landmark study showing there's been little improvement in bullying rates over decades.
00:00Charlie Ford was just 10 when kids first began using school messaging apps to bully her.
00:08In high school her mother overheard kids on the phone urging her to self-harm.
00:12Her mental health went where no child's mental health should ever have to go to.
00:18I'd be hearing things from people and that would just make me break down in tears.
00:23But mum Serena says her school's responses over time were slow and ineffective.
00:28They just kept putting it on Charlie as she's the problem, she needs to be more resilient.
00:36Kids Helpline figures show children as young as 10 are having suicidal thoughts over school bullying.
00:41And rates have risen higher than at the peak of COVID.
00:44While thoughts don't typically turn into plans, they're a key indicator of mental health.
00:49We are really seeing over the last five years significant growth in the level of distress.
00:55And it's actually higher levels of distress if we get to our younger children.
00:59It comes as a landmark study finds one in four adults were bullied at school and rates are not improving.
01:05People were most commonly bullied for their height and weight, followed by race, disability, sexuality and gender.
01:12Bullying is associated with significant mental health harms.
01:17Those mental health harms happen not only just during childhood when the bullying is happening concurrently,
01:22but they tend to follow people into adulthood as well.
01:26The Federal Government has launched an anti-bullying rapid review to help drive national solutions.
01:32We've been tasked with putting together potential models for what a consistent national standard could look like to respond to bullying in schools.
01:41Charlie sought help and is now enrolled in distance education and she's speaking out to drive change.
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