"They can acknowledge when racism has occurred, they can explain why it is a problem, and they can be really clear that it is not OK," University of Wollongong human geography lecturer Dr Natascha Klocker says.

"Once they think their children are old enough to understand, parents can explain why a particular comment is so insulting to the group involved."

A recent AFL game where a 13-year-old girl hurled racist remarks at Adam Goodes has set alarm bells ringing as to how parents can better educate their children on racism.

At the centre of it all is getting kids to understand how racism makes people feel.

"It is really important to raise community awareness - and children's awareness - of the impacts racism has on the people who experience it," Klocker says.

"Racism makes people feel they do not belong, and can make them fearful to leave their homes.

"People who are exposed to racism experience negative mental health outcomes, particularly anxiety and depression.

"Children and young people who experience racism, or whose parents are exposed to racism, are particularly vulnerable to experiencing low self-esteem," Klocker says.

"If these impacts were better understood, more people might begin to take racism seriously."

Klocker says children learn about racism in a range of places including schools, social settings, sporting events and even home.

"This includes the way the media and public commentators respond and, in some instances, try to downplay the significance of racism when it occurs - as in the recent situation involving Adam Goodes," she says. "Hearing racism described as a harmless joke or slip of the tongue certainly doesn't help to teach children that saying these things is OK."

Sport is an arena where racist attitudes creep in. Klocker cites a Victorian Health Promotion Foundation report showing that almost half of the survey respondents from non-English-speaking backgrounds had experienced discrimination at a sporting or other public event based on their ethnicity .

Good tools for parents to educate children, Klocker says, are the website playbytherules.net.au and a recent campaign, "Racism, it stops with me", featuring Australian sports stars of ethnic backgrounds.

"Of course it is important that people only confront racism when it is safe for them to do so, and this is particularly true for children," Klockers says.

Klocker says racism needs to be reported. 

"The media - and all of us - have a responsibility to be less ambiguous, to name racism when it occurs, and stop making excuses for it."