No cross‐national studies have examined public perceptions about weight‐based bullying in youth.

To conduct a multinational examination of public views about (i) the prevalence/seriousness of weight‐based bullying in youth; (ii) the role of parents, educators, health providers and government in addressing this problem and (iii) implementing policy actions to reduce weight‐based bullying.

A cross‐sectional survey of adults in the United States, Canada, Iceland and Australia (N = 2866).

Across all countries, weight‐based bullying was identified as the most prevalent reason for youth bullying, by a substantial margin over other forms of bullying (race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion). Participants viewed parents and teachers as playing major roles in efforts to reduce weight‐based bullying. Most participants across countries (77–94%) viewed healthcare providers to be important intervention agents. Participants (65–87%) supported government augmentation of anti‐bullying laws to include prohibiting weight‐based bullying. Women expressed higher agreement for policy actions than men, with no associations found for participants' race/ethnicity or weight. Causal beliefs about obesity were associated with policy support across countries.

Across countries, strong recognition exists of weight‐based bullying and the need to address it. These findings may inform policy‐level actions and clinical practices concerning youth vulnerable to weight‐based bullying.