Suicides in general were not reported very widely. It wasn't that long ago that a suicide was considered deeply shameful for the entire family, so they were usually kept quiet in the same way that an adulterous affair was.

It's still par for the course, at least where I live, for media to use the code "Police say there were no suspicious circumstances" instead of baldly reporting the fact of a suicide.

Suicide is still a taboo for many people. Reporting a death as a suicide is still problematic for some people. Not that long ago the common practice was to record deaths as accidental or misadventure rather than suicide unless it was unequivocally suicide.

Reported rates were lower because of this.

Newspapers understood better their responsibility to be careful about reporting suicide; the Werther effect is real and has killed people.

Children's rights are a relatively recent phenomenon. Bullying used to be seen as character forming or as an unstoppable part of childhood.

The extreme end of bullying is more severe now. And bullies have access to technology which extends the bullying from the school to the bullied person's wider life.

tl;dr yes, there is more awareness, and more reporting, and the bullying is worse, and more children choosing suicide.

They have more ways to extend the torment of bullying beyond school grounds, e.g. on the internet. Imagine going home, looking for an escape from the bullying, only to be harassed further on the various social media sites, messaging protocols.

Bullying has always existed; we'd just decided it matters more.

Suicide has also always existed; we just care more now.