Reports
- Hear me play: Youth perceptions of safety in sport - 2025 survey results, opens in a new tab, Sport Integrity Australia, (2026). This first report from the Youth Perceptions of Safety in Sport Study shares the findings from the 2025 annual survey, completed by more than 1,000 young people aged 12 to 18 from across Australia.
- Positive Behaviours in Sport Snapshot 2025, opens in a new tab, Sport Integrity Australia, (2025). A snapshot of results from the first 12 months of the Positive Behaviours in Sport Study that is being conducted over a period of five years between 2024-2028 to seek thoughts and feedback from coaches and participants/athletes around what they think about the fairness and safety of sport in Australia and provide insight into the current level of knowledge Australians have in relation to sport integrity issues.
- Online Abuse in Sport Barometer 2025, opens in a new tab, United Against Online Abuse (UAOA), (2025). The second edition of the Barometer report is based on an extensive survey of 18 international sporting federations to research and track how online abuse is impacting athletes, competitors, officials and referees in various sporting disciplines across the world. Key findings from the federations surveyed included:
- 50% of all abuse directed at athletes and competitors was misogynistic or racist.
- 75% reported continued threats against competitors and their families.
- 50% said volunteers and officials now face routine online abuse.
- 90% agreed that abuse could force athletes to leave their sport.
- 33% already had a formal plan in place to address online abuse in their sport; around 38% did not but were in the process of developing one.
- Around 22% were already using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to detect and remove instances of online abuse against participants in their sport, another 11% were in discussions with service providers to do so.
- The Players' Pulse: The RLPA's Annual Player Survey & Findings Report, opens in a new tab, Rugby League Players Association, (2025). Over 800 NRL and NRLW players completed the RLPA’s annual member survey during the 2025 seasons. The Players’ Pulse survey involved over 100 questions on a range of topics from workplace environments and sponsorship deals to social media and racism. Some key findings relating to experiences of abuse and harm from athlete respondents included:
- 13% of men's and 9% of women's players experienced targeted abuse; with 7% of men's and 5% of women's experienced racism.
- The primary channel where abuse occurred was social media, over 80% for both men and women. For male players 63% also experienced abuse from fans at games, but this was significantly lower for female players (9%).
- 38% of male players, and 28% of female felt pressured to continue to train with concussion symptoms.
- In 2025, both competitions recorded a C rating for psychological safety, cultural safety was rated around a C level for the NRLW and B for NRL. While this indicates that most players do feel generally safe in their environments, it also means that fewer than 75% feel this support at a consistently high level.
- SAFER (Support & Awareness for Female fans in European football through Research, prevention, and remedy) - A Handbook on Project Outcomes and Good Practice Recommendations, opens in a new tab, Football Supporters Europe, (2025). This report delineates the findings of the SAFER project, the first systematic, mixed-methods investigation into GBV within European football fandom. The research integrates quantitative data from 884 survey respondents across nine countries with qualitative insights from in-depth interviews with fans and experts. The objective is to move beyond mere quantification to elucidate the mechanisms and experiences of violence, thereby providing an evidence base for the development of effective preventative and remedial interventions.
- “We Were Only Demanding Justice”: Sexual Abuse in Indian Wrestling Federation, opens in a new tab, Sport & Rights Alliance, (July 2024). The report details the pattern of sexual harassment and violence suffered by athletes during the 12-year tenure of then-President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Brij Bhushan Singh, who was also a Parliament member with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the time.
- More than a game: what do children and young people think about sport?, opens in a new tab South Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People, Project report No.31, (June 2022). The aim of this report is to bring children and young people’s voices to the fore in a way that will support change being made to the cultural conditions and infrastructure that currently surround sport and physical activity in South Australia. Doing so will encourage greater and ongoing participation from children and young people because they will have had input into what services and infrastructure needs to be delivered and where.
- CASES: Child abuse in sport: European Statistics – Project Report, opens in a new tab, Hartill, M., Rulofs, B., Lang, M., et al., Edge Hill University, (2021). The CASES project aimed to provide data on the prevalence of interpersonal violence, abuse and maltreatment experienced by children (people under the age of 18) inside or outside sport, across different European national contexts. To this end we undertook a survey of over 10,000 individuals across Europe in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Spain, and the UK.
- Snapshot analysis: social media commentary of sportswomen and men, opens in a new tab, PLAN International, (April 2019). The snapshot analysis of social media commentary found that more than a quarter of all comments towards sportswomen were sexist, sexualised, belittled women’s sports or were otherwise negative in nature. The analysis looked at a selection of social media commentary on Facebook posts shared by major sports news broadcasters in Australia in the past 12 months, and found:
- Sportswomen face three times as many negative comments as men, at 27% compared to 9%
- Social media abuse of sportswomen is overwhelmingly sexist – 23% of all negative comments towards sportswomen were sexist in nature, referring to traditional gender stereotypes, while 20% belittled women’s sports, their athletic abilities and skills.
- Sexualised comments are only aimed at sportswomen – 14% of all negative comments towards sportswomen were sexualised, compared to 0% for male athletes.
- Whilst the majority of negative comments towards men focused on cheating or drugs, some sportsmen were also subjected to sexist abuse towards men: 15% of negative comments towards men referred to traditional gender stereotypes, which deem that they must not display weakness or emotion.
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