How common are personal experiences of online hate among children in Australia?
eSafety surveyed 2,302 Australian children aged 10 to 17 years1 to determine the prevalence of online experiences and harms, including online hate experiences.2
This includes experiences where someone had said or posted offensive or threatening things to or about them because the person posting was hateful of one or more of their identity characteristics.3
Key findings
A significant minority of children have personally experienced online hate
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Trans and gender-diverse children are more likely to have experienced online hate
74%
of trans and gender-diverse children had at some point personally experienced online hate.
(46% had personally experienced online hate in the past 12 months.)5
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A similar proportion of girls and boys have personally experienced online hate
Around 1 in 4
girls (26%) and boys (25%) had personally experienced online hate at some point.
(15% of boys and 13% of girls had personally experienced online hate in the past 12 months.)
Online hate experiences are more common among teens than younger children6
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Children personally experience diverse forms of online hate
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Of children surveyed:
Indicatively, 51%
of trans and gender-diverse children had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of them being transgender, non-binary or gender diverse.
(32% had experienced this in the past 12 months.7)
42%
of sexually diverse children had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of their sexuality.
(20% in the past 12 months.)
31%
of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of them being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
(15% in the past 12 months.)
21%
of children with disability had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of their disability or diagnosis.
(12% in the past 12 months.)
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14%
of girls had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of them being a girl.
(7% in the past 12 months.)
11%
of children had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of their skin colour, race or culture.
(5% in the past 12 months.)
10%
of children had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of the country they came from.
(5% in the past 12 months.)
8%
of children had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of their religion.
(4% in the past 12 months.)
7%
of boys had at some point someone say or post offensive or threatening things to or about them because they were hateful of them being a boy.
(4% in the past 12 months.)
Notes
1 Part of a nationally representative survey of 3,454 children aged 10 to 17 years living in Australia between December 2024 and February 2025.
2 For more information about the methodology of the research, see the methodology report.
3 Source: Q.1 Has anyone online ever said or posted offensive or threatening things to or about you personally because they were hateful of …?
4 Prevalence of online hate was assessed in a recontact survey. Children were given the option of skipping certain questions in the survey, including those on their identity characteristics. Among the 2,302 children who completed the recontact survey, 304 declined to answer one or more questions about their identity characteristics and consequently weren’t asked whether they had experienced certain types of online hate. Of these 304 participants, 81 had experienced at least one other type of online hate, while 223 hadn’t experienced any other type of online hate or they didn’t know or didn’t want to say if they had done so. These 223 participants have therefore been excluded from the overall prevalence of online hate, which is based on a subset of the sample (n=2,079).
5 The smaller sample size for trans and gender-diverse children should be considered when interpreting these findings (n=54).
6 Arrows denote statistically significant differences between sub-groups. The proportion of children aged 13 to 15 and 16 to 17 who had ever or in the past 12 months personally experienced online hate didn’t differ significantly.
7 Given the small sample size for trans and gender-diverse children (n=49), this finding should be considered indicative only.
Helpful resources
eSafety’s Parents section has information for parents and carers, including information and advice about helping children stay safe online.
eSafety’s Kids and Young People sections provide useful information to help children and young people stay safe online.
Last updated: 23/07/2025