Youth workers say bullying is being seen less at schools as the internet takes over the social scene.
Nationally, helplines are being inundated with soaring numbers of bullying-related calls, with the services saying schools are failing to protect students.
Calls about bullying to Kidsline, Youthline and the children's helpline, What's Up, all increased last year. Bullying-related calls jumped from 848 in 2010 to 3272 at Youthline, by 5 per cent at Kidsline, where they comprised one-third of all calls, and from 16.5 per cent of calls to What's Up in 2010 to 17.6 per cent last year.
Bullying was the biggest issue for boys who rang What's Up and the second-biggest issue for girls after peer relationships.
Whakatane Principals' Association president and Whakatane Intermediate principal Doug McLean believed bullying had been decreasing. "Over the years, I've personally seen less bullying, but I could be a little bit naive because I've got no idea about how much bullying there is on Facebook and cyberspace," he said. "I think that's where the real problem is because it's an area where a lot of adults don't see.
"Parents have a responsibility to see what their children are putting online."
Mr McLean said although he did not know how much cyber-bullying went on, every now and then the school would get a "wake-up call".
"But we try to have programmes to get through to kids with how social sites can be used responsibly. I think the kids here are very aware that it's very inappropriate to hit - we get the odd case but not as much as we used to, there's a lot of education programmes about bullying."
Tuwharetoa ki Kawerau Health Education and Social Services Trust chief executive Chris Marjoribanks said that with technology becoming more prevalent, it was becoming harder to "insulate" youth from the effects of bullying.
"It can have such a devastating impact on youth, it isolates them from other friendships and puts them at risk," he said.
"I think bullying is a part of every community. It's a shift in youth behaviour through Facebook and texting - they use those to intimidate people because they don't have to be face-to-face."
Mr Marjoribanks said the exposure through the internet was potentially damaging to youths as something shared among a small group of people could quickly spread.
"Schools are the foundation where most of the issues - particularly with youths - are generated because of their associations. Schools that have bullying programmes have a significant impact on reducing bullying, I think there is increased awareness around bullying and it is not acceptable." Additional reporting APNZ