Cyberbullying Laws in Australia Explained (Complete Guide)

Cyberbullying Laws in Australia 

Being investigated or charged with a cyberbullying offence in Australia is a serious matter. What many people do not realise is that conduct carried out online — including sending messages, sharing images, or posting content — can result in criminal charges carrying significant terms of imprisonment.

Australian law does not treat cyberbullying as a single offence. Instead, a range of federal and state laws apply depending on the nature of the conduct. This guide explains the key offences, the penalties, and the defences that may be available to you.

What is Cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying refers to the use of digital technologies — such as social media, messaging apps, emails, and online forums — to harass, intimidate, threaten, or humiliate another person.

Common forms of cyberbullying include:

• Sending abusive or threatening messages
• Posting harmful or false information online
• Sharing private images without consent
• Impersonating someone online
• Repeated harassment or stalking via digital platforms
• Publishing someone’s personal information to expose or endanger them (‘doxxing’)
• Threatening to share intimate images unless demands are met (‘sextortion’ or ‘revenge-porn’)
• Creating or sharing AI-generated or digitally altered intimate images (deepfakes)
• Sending hoax threats via digital platforms
• Accessing or monitoring another person’s online accounts or devices without permission
• Sending material that encourages, instructs or incites self-harm or suicide

In Australia, cyberbullying is not defined as a single standalone criminal offence. However, many cyberbullying behaviours fall under existing criminal and civil laws.

Is Cyberbullying Illegal in Australia?

Cyberbullying can be illegal depending on the severity and nature of the behaviour, and the laws in Australia distinguish between serious and mild cases.

Mild cases, such as cyberbullying at schools or workplaces, are often handled through civil remedies and internal policies rather than criminal prosecution.

More serious cases may be treated as criminal offences under federal or state laws.

Key Cyberbullying Laws in Australia

Australia uses a combination of federal and state laws to address cyberbullying.

The Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) and subsequent amendment in 2024 significantly strengthened Australia’s approach to online harm by allowing complaints about cyberbullying and cyber-abuse, and by placing obligations on digital platforms to respond quickly to harmful content.

Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)

The primary law used to prosecute cyberbullying at the federal level is the Criminal Code Act 1995. Division 474 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) sets out a range of telecommunications offences that apply to online conduct.

Section 474.17 – Using a Carriage Service to Harass or Offend

This is the most commonly used provision in cyberbullying cases.

This offence applies to anyone who uses a phone or internet service to communicate in a way that is menacing, harassing or offensive. Whether the conduct is criminal is assessed objectively. The test is whether a reasonable person would consider the communication menacing, harassing or offensive in the circumstances.1

Section 474.16 – Using a Carriage Service for a Hoax Threat

This offence applies to anyone who uses a phone or internet service to send a communication intended to make someone falsely believe that a bomb, dangerous substance, or harmful object has been or will be placed somewhere. This provision covers bomb threats, fake emergency alerts, and similar conduct carried out via phone, email, or online platforms.

Section 474.15 – Using a Carriage Service to Make a Threat

A person commits this offence if they use a carriage service to make a threat to kill or to cause serious harm to another person, where the sender intends the recipient to fear the threat will be carried out. It is not necessary to prove the recipient actually feared the threat — the sender’s intention is sufficient.2

Section 474.17A – Transmitting Sexual Material Without Consent (Including Deepfakes)

It is an offence to use a carriage service to transmit sexual or intimate material depicting another person without their consent, or where the sender is reckless as to whether the person consents.

The Act expressly states that it is irrelevant whether the material has been created or altered using technology. This means the offence covers deepfakes and AI-generated images — i.e. material that depicts a real person in a sexual context but was digitally fabricated or manipulated.

A separate aggravated offence applies where the person was responsible for creating or altering the material before transmitting it without consent — for example, generating a deepfake of the victim. This is a more serious charge carrying a higher maximum penalty (section 474.17AA).

Sections 474.17C and 474.17D – Doxxing

Two dedicated doxxing offences were introduced into the Criminal Code Act. Both apply where a person uses a carriage service to publish, distribute or otherwise make available another person’s personal data in a way that reasonable persons would regard as menacing or harassing.

Personal data is defined broadly and includes:

• Name and photographs
• Phone numbers and email addresses
• Online accounts
• Residential, work or business address
• Place of education
• Place of worship

Section 474.17C applies to doxxing targeting an individual, while Section 474.17D applies to doxxing targeting members of a group.

With respect to targeting members of a group, the section further specifies that the offence is committed if the person engages in the conduct because of their belief that the group is distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality or national or ethnic origin.

The Criminal Code itself uses the term “doxxing” in its explanatory notes for both sections.3

Section 474.29A – Using a Carriage Service for Suicide-Related Material

It is an offence to use a carriage service to access, transmit, publish or distribute material that:

• directly or indirectly counsels or incites committing or attempting suicide; or
• promotes or provides instruction on a particular method of suicide —

where the person intends the material to be used for that purpose, or intends that another person use it for that purpose.

This offence is not about good-faith discussion or debate about euthanasia or suicide law reform. It is directed at material deliberately used to encourage or facilitate self-harm.

State and Territory Laws

Each Australian state and territory also has laws that may apply to cyberbullying. In Victoria, the main piece of legislation that covers cyberbullying is the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic).

Sections 20 and 21 – Threats to Kill and Threats to Inflict Serious Injury (Crimes Act 1958 (Vic))

The Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) creates standalone offences for making threats, which operate alongside the federal provisions under s474.15 and may be charged where a threat is made online. State offences are commonly charged as alternatives to the equivalent federal offences.

Section 20 makes it an offence to make a threat to kill another person, without lawful excuse, where the accused intended the recipient to fear the threat would be carried out, or was reckless as to whether they would.

Section 21 makes it an offence to make a threat to inflict serious injury on another person in the same circumstances.

Two important distinctions from the federal provision under s474.15 are worth noting. First, unlike s474.15, sections 20 and 21 are not limited to threats made via a carriage service — they apply to any threat, including those made in-person. Second, sections 20 and 21 can be triggered by recklessness as to whether the recipient would fear the threat, which is a lower threshold than s474.15, which requires intention.

Section 21A – Stalking (Crimes Act 1958 (Vic))

Victoria’s stalking offence is one of the most important state-level provisions in cyberbullying cases.

The offence requires a course of conduct — that is, conduct occurring on more than one occasion or over a protracted period — directed toward the victim with a continuity of purpose.

The course of conduct can include any of the following:

• Contacting the victim by phone, text, email or other electronic communication
• Publishing material on the internet relating to the victim, or material that purports to originate from the victim (covering fake accounts and impersonation)
• Causing an unauthorised computer function in a device owned or used by the victim
• Tracing the victim’s use of the internet or email
• Making threats to the victim
• Using abusive or offensive words to or in the presence of the victim
• Performing or directing abusive or offensive acts towards the victim
• Keeping the victim under surveillance

The course of conduct must be intended, or likely, to cause physical or mental harm to the victim (including psychological harm and suicidal thoughts), or to arouse apprehension or fear for the victim’s own safety or that of another person.

Sections 53R, 53S and 53T – Intimate Image Offences (Crimes Act 1958 (Vic))

Victoria has its own dedicated scheme for intimate image offences, operating alongside the federal provisions.

Section 53R – Producing an intimate image contrary to community standards of acceptable conduct. The Act expressly gives an example of digitally superimposing a person’s face onto a photograph of a naked person, making clear that deepfakes fall within this offence.

Section 53S then covers the offence of distributing an intimate image, and provides examples of sending photographs of another person depicting the genital or anal region of the targeted person; of depicting them engaging in a sexual activity.

Section 53T – Threatening to distribute an intimate image covers the core conduct of ‘sextortion’ — threatening to release intimate material unless the victim complies with demands. The threat can be explicit or implicit.

Importantly, section 53V provides that an honest and reasonable belief that the conduct was not contrary to community standards is not a defence to any of these offences.4

Sections 247B, 247C and 247D – Computer Offences and Serious Computer Offences (Crimes Act 1958 (Vic))

Where cyberbullying involves accessing or interfering with a victim’s devices or accounts, the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) also covers offences referred to as ‘computer offences’.

These include unauthorised access with intent to commit a serious offence (such as hacking into a victim’s social media account to impersonate them or extract private information); unauthorised modification of data to impair access, reliability, security or operation of data; or unauthorised impairment of electronic communication.

These provisions are relevant where a perpetrator accesses a victim’s accounts or devices without permission as part of a broader campaign of harassment.5

Criminal Penalties for Cyberbullying

The table below sets out the maximum penalties for the key cyberbullying-related offences under federal and Victorian law. In addition to imprisonment, offenders may face criminal records, fines, and ancillary court orders such as intervention orders or intimate image disposal orders.

Defences to Cyberbullying in Australia

Because cyberbullying is prosecuted under a range of different laws, available defences depend on the specific offence charged.

Mistaken Identity

It must be proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person was responsible for the conduct. Where the identity of the sender is disputed, this can be a significant issue for the prosecution.

Lack of Intent or Knowledge

Many offences require the prosecution to prove a specific mental element, such as intention or recklessness. If the accused did not intend the communication to be threatening or harassing, this may be relevant to their defence.

Consent

For intimate image offences, it is a defence that the person depicted consented to the conduct. However, consent is not available as a defence where the person depicted is a child.

The Reasonable Person Test

For offences such as s474.17, the conduct must be something a reasonable person would regard as menacing, harassing or offensive. If the communication does not meet that threshold, it may not be criminal.

Freedom of Expression

Some online conduct may be protected expression, though this will not apply where the communication crosses into threats, harassment or serious abuse.

Duress

If the accused was forced or pressured into sending the material, duress may be available as a defence, provided the response was reasonable in the circumstances.6