Helplines are being inundated with soaring numbers of bullying-related calls and the services say schools are failing to protect pupils.
Calls about bullying to Kidsline, Youthline and the children's helpline, What's Up, all increased last year after dramatic incidents such as a vicious attack on 15-year-old Wanganui schoolgirl Robin de Jong, who was repeatedly punched and head-stamped by another girl.
Bullying-related calls jumped from 848 in 2010 to 3272 at Youthline, by 5% at Kidsline where they made up a third of all calls, and from 16.5% of calls to What's Up in 2010 to 17.6% last year.
Bullying was the biggest single issue for boys who rang What's Up, and the second-biggest issue for girls after peer relationships.
Youthline chief executive Stephen Bell said the calls for help came on top of bullying statistics which were among the worst in the world.
He said schools, and adults generally, were responsible for the environments that produced these figures.
"If I was a school principal, I would be horrified. I would feel like I've failed," he said.
"I would be talking to other principals and saying, 'We have failed as principals if young people, especially young people who are marginalised because of their difference, are not feeling safe'."
After the Wanganui case in March last year, Prime Minister John Key called for a "national conversation" about how to reduce bullying.
The then Education Minister, Anne Tolley, wrote to school boards reminding them of their responsibilities to keep their schools safe.
A major report by Mr Key's chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, in May recommended more mental health support for children and adolescents.
Last month, Mr Key unveiled an extra $62 million over four years for youth mental health projects, including more school nurses and youth workers, and asking the Education Review Office to create new indicators of student wellbeing such as the level of bullying.
The Ministry of Education's new website, wellbeingatschool.org.nz, provides sample surveys for schools to use to find out whether students know what to do when bullying occurs, although the samples do not ask students directly whether they have been bullied or for the bullies' names.
Some schools do ask pupils those direct questions, and try to help the bullies to change and supervise them closely until they stop bullying. But many schools do not ask.
The new Chief Human Rights Commissioner, David Rutherford, led a group of parents who complained to the ombudsman about the handling of a horrific spate of bullying at Hutt Valley High School in 2007 and said the first step towards tackling the problem was measuring it.
He said a 2009 official survey estimated that those aged 15 and over were assaulted 699,000 times in the previous year, but children under 15 were not surveyed.
"It would be surprising if there were 700,000 assaults against people over 15 and none under 15."
