Teen figure skaters get targeted online

Olympic gold medallist Evan Bates warned on 9 October 2026 that teenage figure skaters as young as 13 are increasingly targeted by abusive comments on social media, with some users creating toxic environments around livestreamed events such as the Junior Grand Prix. The International Skating Union, which governs figure skating and speedskating, pledged to extend a programme giving competitors access to artificial intelligence software that can hide abusive comments from view, reflecting heightened concern about identity-based harassment and coordinated abuse directed at child athletes in a sport that has seen revived popularity since the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Hiding abusive comments after they arrive reduces visibility but does not prevent the targeting itself or surface the child who is being systematically harassed. The athlete-abuse detection module within Guardii operates upstream of that point, identifying sustained targeting, identity-based attacks, escalation in tone and coordinated pile-ons across direct messages and public channels before a young competitor internalises the harm. As a world-leading online-safety platform, Guardii reports the pattern and severity of hostile contact to the athlete, their support team or the sporting body in a form that enables appropriate intervention, whether that is pastoral support, a referral to safeguarding officers or, where threats cross into criminal conduct, escalation to law enforcement with the evidential record intact.