Schools were being given no guidance by the Government on how to tackle new forms of bullying involving new technologies, an Opposition TD has said.
Olwyn Enright, Fine Gael's spokeswoman on education, said this meant that Minister for Education Mary Hanafin was 13 years behind her UK counterpart on the issue.
"Minister Hanafin must accept that to once again refer all schools to the 1993 Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behaviour is a totally inadequate response to the problem of bullying in our schools today.
"These guidelines make no reference to internet bullying, the use of mobile phones and text messages as a bullying tool, or to homophobic bullying, all of which have been shown by recent surveys to be "endemic".
A Department of Education survey this week found that one in 10 Irish children was physically threatened or verbally abused by people they met while surfing the internet. It also revealed that almost 30 per cent had met somebody new online who had asked for information such as their photograph, phone number, street address or school name.
Ms Enright criticised the department's website by comparing it to its UK equivalent, which gives information on tackling bullying, a guide for victims of bullying, definitions of cyber bullying, anti-bullying videos and an anti-bullying charter.
The latest research, Ms Enright said, showed many teachers appeared to feel unable to challenge homophobic bullying. She accused the Minister of failing to fund anti-bullying programmes in 140 schools.