The figures do show, however, that the number of contacts to the service about bullying has been falling steadily from 2001. Last year bullying also slipped from sixth to seventh as an issue of main concern to the young callers.

Kids Helpline supervisor Paul Harrison says that drop-off is not necessarily cause for comfort because the number of calls and online enquiries from children about mental health issues had steadily increased over the period.

Harrison believes that rise in mental health concerns is significant and likely to be related to bullying.

''There's no doubt that bullying is still one of the key issues that children and young people are troubled by. I would still label it as being an epidemic, worldwide,'' he said. ''Sadly, bullying has significant physical and psychological effects on kids, from depression, anxiety, stress, self-harming and even suicide.''

Harrison says most bullies suffer from self-esteem issues, many come from home environments where there is ''harsh punishment or neglect or abuse''.

''Certainly who does the bullying is also the person who needs the counselling,'' he said.

Cyber-bullying such as posting footage of a fight on the internet helped the bully to feel even more powerful, and was ''a more extreme measure to shame their victim''.

''Bullying someone in front of other people gives [the bully] that heightened sense of power because they have an audience. When you publish something on the internet or a mobile phone, your audience is much bigger, so therefore the gratification is greater,'' Harrison said.

Yet Kids Helpline has not been overwhelmed with calls for help from children who had experienced cyber-bullying.

''One of the striking things around bullying for children is that they hold on to a lot of shame around that. Bullies say some really horrible things to their victims and kids quite often believe what is said to them. It lowers their self-esteem and they feel this enormous shame, so they quite often don't talk about it,'' he said.

''Cyber-bullying, using technology to publicise bullying acts, is pretty horrific. It's very graphic, so there may be even more levels of shame that kids are holding on to as a result of that and, at this point, are not necessarily talking about it.''

Melbourne psychologist Michael Burge deals with clients including adults who have suffered from post-traumatic stress as a result of being bullied as children. After 25 years of working in the area, he thinks bullying is becoming more savage, perhaps reflecting a more competitive, ''dog-eat-dog'' society.

''There seems to be a harsher, crueller subculture emerging where it comes to bullying,'' Burge said.

''Once upon a time they'd be one child picking on another child or one adolescent picking on another adolescent but now it's more like a pack mentality. You get three or four or five kids picking on one person. There's no sense of honour or fair play and the cruelty seems to be greater.''

Kelly Lokan is a Year 11 student at a private school in north Canberra. Dale Lovatt is a Year 10 student at a public school in south Canberra. They say bullying is a given at any school.

''Personally, in the past, I have had experiences with bullying and I've seen quite a few of my friends being affected by it and as a result it's something I'm passionate about getting people to realise, 'Hey, it's not cool, no matter what it is'. It's something that's not necessary, it doesn't need to happen,'' Lokan, 16, said. Some years ago, she was harassed by an older student who didn't like her being in the same year group. Lokan now regards the whole episode as ''almost comical'' but, at the time, it was hurtful.

''A lot of it happens on the internet,'' she said. Bullies will post cruel comments or photographs on the websites or post their own photographs to humiliate their victim. ''Bullying around our school is more like people beating each other up,'' Lovatt, 16, said.

Bystanders will film fights with their mobile phones and post them on the internet. ''It's done for entertainment,'' he said. ''Some of them just want to see what was going on and have a record of it.''

Mobile phones are also used to round up an audience for a fight.

''If there's going to be a fight, people will get on the phone and there'll be carloads of people from other schools turn up,'' he said.

Both say bullying is worse among younger students.

''At our school, in Year 7 and 8, people bully each other, it gets pretty nasty. By Year 9 and 10, no one cares any more. There's a bit of playful banter here and there,'' he said.

Lokan agrees. ''The older you get, the more united your class becomes and it goes from being a cliquey atmosphere with bullying 'I'm friends with this person but you can't be friends with that person' to more of a united front. Not saying everyone knows everyone and everyone has to be friends with everyone, but differences are more accepted, the higher up you go in school. People get over it.''

That doesn't mean bullying is not a concern.

''The big [news] stories [about bullying] might not come up that often but it's still an important issue. It's still an underlying thing,'' Lokan said.

The pair believe young people who bully are insecure and perhaps have an unstable home life.

Lovatt said, ''The bullies generally have a lot more problems than you know about.''

Lokan agreed. ''I think that's true. If they feel they need to bring someone else down to bring themselves up, then there is some kind of thing going on behind the scenes.''

ACT Policing's Superintendent Kate Buggy said under Commonwealth law, people could be charged for misusing technology to bully someone. More often than not, the images of bullying posted on the internet or recorded by mobile phones also became valuable evidence.

''I'm not sure of the prevalence in Canberra. There have been times when there have been peaks of activity and I think the schools have worked very well with the police in trying to nullify that. And I know a lot of schools have got rules around mobile phone usage. And a lot of it comes back to parents being mindful of telling the kids what the phones are for,'' she said. ''It's an emerging problem and I think that education and awareness is the way to the heart of the problem to ensure it doesn't escalate in Canberra. Bullying has been around since the year dot this is just a new way to do [it].''

Education Minister Andrew Barr was not available for interview for this feature but his office did issue a statement regarding whether complaints about school bullying were logged by the Education Department, saying there had been eight ''critical incidents'' involving ACT public schools reported between July and September, down from 27 incidents over the same time last year.

Those figures are in contrast to the more than 50 apprehended violence orders issued by ACT courts so far this year to school children wanting protection from their classmates.

When asked how he felt about parents and students resorting to legal action because they felt schools weren't adequately combating bullying, Barr's statement said, ''ACT schools work closely with families and students to deal with issues as they arise as this is generally the most effective way to tackle problems at their cause. I would urge parents and carers to continue to work with the schools and the department to address any issues.''

The Government also established the Safe Schools Taskforce last year, including police, parents and education officers. It had put out anti-bullying policies, restorative justice and conflict-resolution programs and a code of conduct for what was expected for all people on ACT school grounds.

''Additionally, schools and students have access to a range of support programs and policies to work through issues of conflict [and] bullying. For example, each high school has a student welfare team, including a pastoral care coordinator and a youth worker to look after the welfare of students.''

But the minister suggested that schools shouldn't carry the entire load. ''Our schools are microcosms of our society and incidents that begin away from school sometimes play out in the schoolyard and are reported in the media as 'school bullying','' his statement read.

''Bullying occurs throughout the community and as such is an issue that requires a whole-of-community response. Governments through a range of agencies can play an important part in combating the problem but it is also a responsibility of individuals, parents and the whole community.''

Harrison says bullying may be regarded as a rite of passage in the life of any child but that didn't mean that attitude was acceptable.

''The people who say 'toughen up, it's part of life' are trying to normalise something that shouldn't be normalised,'' he said.

Burge agrees.

''There is an argument that children who are overly protected don't learn how to build up the resilience and robustness to overcome the knocks of life and that might include dealing with bullies. But at the same time, when people are put in a situation where they can't possibly defend themselves, either mentally or physically, then they are in no situation to be able to harden up or toughen up,'' he said.

''I think the answer is societal. Families and educational institutions have got to work together to protect individuals so they can expect to be safe and respected in a reasonable way.''