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ABC Anastasia Asarloglou is one of the thousands of Australian children who have experienced bullying online.

As many as one in three Australian children has experienced some form of cyber-bullying, yet the system to control bad behaviour on social media networks is voluntary, with the industry largely self-regulated.

The Federal Government has released a discussion paper proposing a number of changes to help make children safer online, but critics of the proposal say another layer of bureaucracy is not the answer.

Cristina Asarloglou sobs as she talks about her daughter Anastasia, who is among the thousands of Australian children who have experienced bullying online.

"She said to me that she didn't want to live anymore and I couldn't believe a child at eight years old could say that she didn't want to live anymore," Ms Asarloglou said.

"Bullying has always existed, but now with online bullying it just intensifies it.

"Anything to help kids that are being affected by this is something because I believe it is an epidemic."

For some children the relentless bullying becomes too much. Chloe Fergusson took her own life six months ago at the age of 15.

Her sister Cassie Whitehill is calling for tougher bullying laws and enforceable take down orders, and has set up a website promoting what she calls "Chloe's law".

"If we can just save one young person from taking their own life or being affected by bullying then we've achieved our goal," she said.

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Cyber-bullying: Industry against proposals to regulate social media networks