This National Child Protection Week (NCPW), Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) is calling on sport organisations, parents and carers to stay alert and informed about how to better protect children and young people from potential online abuse, particularly through public-facing profiles on sports management apps.

With this year’s NCPW theme focusing on shifting conversation to action, there’s no better time to take steps that will better protect children and young people in sport.

Why this matters

Children have the right to feel safe and have their personal information protected. As digital tools become embedded in sport, it’s critical that clubs, associations, and administrators understand the risks and take action to mitigate them.

Australia is strengthening online protections through recent legislative changes, including:

These changes will have implications for how sporting organisations manage children’s data and digital interactions.

The benefits and risks

We recognise organisations rely on sports management apps to help ease the administrative pressure on volunteers, staff, coaches and officials. We also see a number of potential risks to children and young people with the use of these apps. 

Key risks:

  • Public access to player profiles, photos and match locations.
  • Potential for grooming and exploitation through shared interests.
  • Exposure of children under protection orders or in care.
  • AI manipulation of images for harmful purposes.
  • Unmonitored chat features between children and adults.
  • Increased vulnerability for children with disabilities.
  • Weak privacy settings and potential data breaches.

Case study: Default public profiles in a sports management app

A popular sports management app used in Australia was found to have user profiles set to public by default, including those of children. This meant that names, game statistics and teams were visible and searchable with the app. While users could manually change their settings to private, many were unaware of the default visibility, potentially exposing personal information without informed consent. 

The sport’s governing body took steps to address the issue by:

  • publishing guidance on how participants and parents could update privacy settings for themselves and their children
  • clarifying visibility risks in public communications, including app FAQs and support articles
  • reinforcing their commitment to protecting personal information and child safety through updated messaging and support resources. 

This case highlights the importance of:

  • defaulting to privacy in app design
  • educating users about visibility settings
  • ensuring child safety is prioritised in digital platforms used by sports organisations. 

Learn more

Register now for SIA’s upcoming webinar on Tech-Based Abuse in Sport – Exploitation. Learn to identify harmful behaviours such as grooming, unwanted contact, and doxing, and understand how these can impact the safety and wellbeing of athletes, especially children and young people.

This session is designed to equip sports administrators, coaches, and parents with practical tools to safeguard their communities and take action against online abuse.
 
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