Online environments

Australia

• Best Practice Principles on Athlete-Centric Governance of Technology and Athlete Information, Australian Sports Commission, (April 2023). Founded in principles of professionalism and fiduciary responsibility, athlete-centric governance embodies the simple and powerful concept that when individuals and organisations make decisions about technology and athlete information, they must always act in the best interests of athletes, rather than in their own interests. This reflects that athlete information is not and cannot be owned by organisations, practitioners or administrators, but is managed for and on behalf of athletes.

International

• International Safeguards for Children in Esports, opens in a new tab, International Safeguarding for Children in Sport, (accessed 26 February 2026). Aim to outline the things that should be put in place by any organisation providing esports activities to children and young people.

Australian

• Social Protect, opens in a new tab, (accessed 4 March 2026). Rugby Australia is proud to partner with Social Protect in helping to create safe, respectful online environments for all members of the Australian rugby community. Social Protect is a purpose-built mobile app that uses AI technology to detect and delete abusive comments in real time, before they go public. All members of the Australian rugby community including players, coaches, match officials, volunteers, administrators, clubs and associations, have free access to the Social Protect app.

International

• United Against Online Abuse (UAOA), opens in a new tab, (accessed 24 March 2026). Campaign aims to work collaboratively with sporting organisations across the globe, as well as with national governments, academics, regulators, social media and technology platforms to produce research-based, evidence-led assessments of the online abuse landscape in sport as well as the solutions to tackle this phenomenon.

Australian

• Common Issues, opens in a new tab, Play by the Rules, (accessed 25 February 2026). Tips sheets, guidance and resources, developed in partnership with experts in integrity and community sport, to help navigate challenging issues in your club or association. Some resources include: Sideline behaviour; Community child safe sport; Child safe principles, legislation and resources; Child abuse disclosures; Child safety; Online abuse; Bullying; Taking and sharing images in sport; and more.
• Sports hub, opens in a new tab, Australian Office of the eSafety Commissioner, (accessed 25 February 2026). Online safety advice and resources to help make sure everyone in sport has more positive experiences online.

• Elite sportswomen have shared their stories, and these are the hard truths, opens in a new tab, Amanda Shalala, ABC, (12 January 2026). Many athletes in women's sport have told us that they are underpaid, discriminated against, and mistreated in a landmark study conducted by ABC Sport. Athletes were asked for their views on a range of topics including earnings, discrimination, health and wellbeing, resourcing and support, with responses from 152 current and recently retired athletes across 47 sports, including multi-sport athletes. Key findings included: A majority of athletes have witnessed and/or experienced racism, sexual harassment or violence, and discrimination based on their gender, sexuality, or disability; Many athletes are dealing with negative feelings around their body image, and nearly half have experienced an eating disorder/disordered eating; 32% have been trolled on social media, and 87 per cent have seen other athletes abused online.
• Social Protect rolled out to NBL / WNBL with collaborative partnership, opens in a new tab, Basketball Australia, (26 November 2025). The National Basketball League (NBL) and Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) alongside Basketball Australia (BA) today announced a new partnership with Social Protect, an online safety platform helping athletes, teams and organisations protect themselves from social media abuse and harmful online interactions.
• RLPA survey finds NRLW players experience twice as much abuse as NRL counterparts, opens in a new tab, David Mark, ABC, (17 December 2024). A survey has shown NRLW players receive twice as much online abuse as their male counterparts in the NRL and two in three do not report incidents.
• World Athletics publishes findings of study into online abuse of athletes covering Paris Olympic Games, opens in a new tab, (1 November 2024). Fourth major study into online abuse raises concerns over continued levels of abuse of a racist or sexual nature. Key findings: Racism and sexualised abuse continue to be used to target athletes, making up more than 48% of the results; 809 total posts were verified as abusive, with 128 posts and comments (16%) escalated to the relevant platform for additional action; 1,917 athletes with at least one active account were monitored for online abuse during the Paris Games across four social media platforms – 12 times the size sampled during the Tokyo Olympics.
• GPS tracking is everywhere in pro sports but many AFLW players are uncomfortable with it, opens in a new tab, Paul Bowell, Ekaterina Pechenkina, Emma Sherry, Paul Scifleet, The Conversation, (5 September 2024). AFLW footballers, for example, are asked to train and prepare like their AFL peers, including tracking their physical activities through digital performance monitoring. This can be problematic, because most women athletes are still semi-professional, balancing their sporting commitments with work or caregiving responsibilities. This prompted us to research AFLW players’ comfort with digital performance tracking.
• Football’s referee crisis: we asked thousands of refs about the abuse and violence that’s driving them out of the game, opens in a new tab, Tom Webb, Harjit Sekhon, The Conversation, (13 June 2024). One of the two English referees at this year’s Euros, Michael Oliver, was subjected to particularly shocking abuse, including death threats, after awarding a last-minute penalty in a Champions League quarter-final in April 2018. And it wasn’t only him: Oliver’s wife Lucy, also a referee, was sent abusive text messages after her mobile phone number was posted on social media.
• JOC to introduce measures aimed at protecting female athletes from sexualised photos, opens in a new tab, Michael Pavitt, Inside the Games, (14 October 2020). The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) are to introduce measures aimed at preventing female athletes from being photographed in a sexualised manner when competing in their events.
• Photo Series Explores 'Sexploitation' in Athletic Uniforms, opens in a new tab, Julie Compton, NBC News, (22 August 2016). The 2016 Rio Olympics were a reminder of the often striking differences in how male and female athletes dress. In sports like beach volleyball and tennis, for example, women wore scanty sports bikinis and skirts, and the men shirts and shorts.
• These Male Olympic Athletes Are Getting “Magic Miked”, opens in a new tab, Hayley Halverson, Endsexualexploitation.org, (22 August 2016). Instead of focusing on the athletic accomplishments of swimmers, cyclists, or gymnasts, Cosmo has once again returned to one of its favorite recreational activities: sexual objectification.
• Aesthetics or athletics? , opens in a new tabCambridge University Press, (1 August 2016). As athletes around the world descend on Rio for the 2016 Olympics Games, the pinnacle of the global sporting calendar, a new study of English language reveals wide discrepancies in how the media and fans alike talk about men and women in sport.

• 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%).
• 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.

• The blurred line in elite sport: exploring UK media reporting of bullying and banter, opens in a new tab, James A. Newman, Subhan Mahmood, James L. Rumbold, Sport, Education and Society, Volume 30(1), pp.57-72, (2025). In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the concepts of bullying and banter within both sport research and media reporting. However, at present, research has not explored reports of bullying and banter within the UK sport media This is a potential omission, as the media may provide important conceptual information about bullying and banter to those outside of the academic domain. Therefore, the present study sought to understand how banter and bullying are framed by the UK sport media and how these concepts have been distinguished from one another. Guided by a pragmatist approach, 85 print and broadcast media articles were analysed from The Times, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Sun, The Guardian, British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and Sky Sports News (SNN). Through an abductive thematic analysis, the findings highlighted several themes around the media’s view of bullying. The media differentiated bullying and banter through the tipping point between these concepts and a misinterpretation of jokes and banter. The present study contributed to the current research on bullying and banter by analysing the media’s perspectives of the concepts. Overall, the findings outline the contemporary understanding of bullying in sport, whilst highlighting the significant influence the media has in shaping the discussion around banter in this context.
• Discussing safe sport in the digital space: the #gymnastalliance movement, opens in a new tab, Erin Willson, Anika Taylor, Gretchen Kerr, et al., International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Volume 22(6), pp.1529-1548, (2024). Following the abuse perpetrated by former USA Gymnastics team doctor, Larry Nassar, and the subsequent documentary about the case, Athlete A, gymnasts from around the world turned to social media to share their experiences of maltreatment, using the hashtag #gymnastalliance. The purpose of this study was to explore how the gymnast alliance hashtag has been used on Instagram. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted by examining the text and images included in 557 Instagram posts that employed the hashtag. The generated themes included: redress previous silencing, disclosing experiences of maltreatment and their impacts, calling for change, and building a community of support. Findings from the analysis are interpreted using athlete advocacy, maltreatment, safeguarding, and information communication and technology literature. Recommendations are posed for future research and practices to improve safe and accessible disclosure and reporting processes for athletes.
• Match officials and abuse: a systematic review, opens in a new tab, Dara Mojtahedi, Tom Webb, Chelsea B. Leadley, et al., European Sport Management Quarterly, Volume 24(1), pp.199-221, (2024). Match official abuse (MOA) in team sports has become a prominent issue within sport management; the effects of MOA on the safety, wellbeing and retention of officials has led to a growth of academic enquiry. The present review aimed to develop a thorough understanding of MOA through the perspective of sport officials from various sports. Qualitative synthesis of the results identified five key themes of empirical findings pertaining to the nature and prevalence of abuse; the effects of abuse on performance, wellbeing and retention; methods of interpersonal conflict management; facilitators of abuse; and match officials’ attitudes towards current support and intervention. Results show that MOA effects individuals at all levels of competition and can adversely affect the performance and wellbeing of officials.
• Social media impact on athlete mental health: #RealityCheck, opens in a new tab, Putukian M, Blauwet C, Currie A, et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine, Volume 58(9), pp.463-465, (2024). Although the literature on mental health and social media use has increased, minimal research exists on young and/or elite athletes, leaving many important questions unanswered. What are the positive and negative mental health effects of social media on athletes? Are there opportunities to use social media to increase mental health literacy, destigmatise mental health and normalise help-seeking behaviours? What measures exist to protect young and elite athletes from adverse effects of social media? This editorial addresses the potential benefits and harms of social media use on the mental health of athletes and calls for increased research, education and policy to better safeguard athletes in the future.
• Sporting Women and Social Media: Sexualization, Misogyny, and Gender-Based Violence in Online Spaces, opens in a new tab, Emma Kavanagh, Chelsea Litchfield, Jaquelyn Osborne, International Journal of Sport Communication, Volume 12(4), pp.552-572, (2019). This study investigated gender-based violence targeting high-profile women in virtual environments through the case of women’s tennis. 2 popular social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) were analyzed to examine social commentary and fan interaction surrounding the top-5-seeded female tennis players during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Athletes were exposed to violent interactions in a number of ways. Four themes were identified through data analysis: threats of physical violence, sexualization that focused on the female physical appearance, sexualization that expressed desire and/or proposed physical or sexual contact, and sexualization that was vile, explicit, and threateningly violent in a sexual or misogynistic manner. Findings demonstrate how social media provides a space for unregulated gender-based cyberhate targeting high-profile women in their workplace in a way that traditional sport media does not.