The police union this week called on the department to implement proactive strategies to prevent officers becoming victims of online abuse after a senior member was targeted on social media.

Last year the criminal code was amended to make serious bullying and cyberbullying a criminal offence, after several recommendations from the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute in 2016.

But not all of those recommendations were implemented.

Police Association of Tasmania president Colin Riley said when police were targeted online, a restraining order would be a reasonable step to protect them.

But despite a TLRI recommendation to change the Justices Act to include bullying as grounds for a restraint order application, the union argued the new laws remained "inadequate" and did not allow for this line of defence against social media threats.

"There is a clear legislative gap in responding to online bullying, let's just give police and the wider community the ability to respond effectively to this growing menace," Mr Riley said.

Under the current legislation a state government spokesman said "some forms of bullying conduct may form the basis of an application for a restraint order", including physical injury or threats of physical injury and stalking.

"Bullying has lasting effects on individuals and their families, and serious bullying can result in tragic personal consequences for victims, including psychological damage and tragically, self-harm," the spokesman said.

"Our reforms expanded the existing crime of stalking to address serious bullying behaviour, which includes targeting those who use the internet with the intention to cause serious physical or mental harm, including self-harm."

About 40 police officers remain on active worker's compensation claims in Tasmania due to mental health, and two more officers came forward to the union reporting online bullying this week.

The police department responded to the most recent online attack against the senior officer by reporting the post to Facebook, contacting the administrator of the page directly, and referring the post to its internal legal services.

But Mr Riley said it was "reactive and lacked any form of proactive commitment to reduce the likelihood of a member being targeted".

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Writing to Tasmania Police Commissioner Darren Hine on Thursday, Mr Riley questioned whether the department had or would "proactively pursue specific changes to the legislation to enable the organisation to possess a proactive tool to protect its members on their behalf".

"The issuing of a restraining order with appropriate conditions to effectively ensure the timely removal of the posts, with the associated breach of such, will provide a legislative trigger for a social media organisation to remove the posts without the consent of the person posting such," Mr Riley wrote.

Tasmania Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Higgins said the department "regularly consults with the police association and has outlined its practice in addressing online issues".

"As previously advised, Tasmania Police will respond when it becomes aware of the issue, as occurred in the most recent example," Acting Deputy Commissioner Higgins said.

"It is not appropriate to attack police officers or anyone online and Tasmania Police follows the recommendations of the eSafety Commissioner when responding to these types of behaviour which have potential to cause harm."

Raising the issue more broadly in parliament on Thursday, Clark independent MHA Madeleine Ogilvie urged Premier Peter Gutwein to consider a rapid response unit to tackle online bullying.

"We know that it is almost impossible for anyone who has been subjected to false, defamatory or nasty online comments to get them taken down quickly," she said.

"We need an avenue for the community to use to deliver swift action to address online bullying.

"I would also like to see negotiations undertaken with social media platforms to agree local terms of use. This is about wellbeing and community resilience.

"So much of people's lives are lived in the digital space now, it is critical that we embed processes to address social media bullying in a real and practical way."

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