Teen figure skaters increasingly targeted by social media abuse as campaign launches

The International Skating Union announced on October 10, 2026, that teenage figure skaters as young as 13 are experiencing a significant increase in abusive comments on social media, particularly during livestreamed Junior Grand Prix events that have seen a surge in viewership following the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. ISU athletes committee chair and Olympic gold medalist Evan Bates warned that some viewers are creating toxic environments targeting minors who do not deserve such abuse. In response, the ISU pledged to extend a programme giving competitors access to AI-powered software that hides abusive comments from their social media feeds.

Hiding abusive content after it is posted addresses the visibility of harm but not the underlying threat to the athlete. The Guardii athlete-abuse detection module is designed specifically for this scenario: it identifies and blocks sustained targeting, hostile escalation and coordinated harassment directed at young competitors in direct messages and comment threads before the athlete sees it, flagging patterns of abuse rather than waiting for a child to report individual messages. Backed by Startmate and operating across Instagram, Snapchat and other platforms where athletes engage with fans, Guardii enables coaches, parents or national sporting bodies to be alerted when a minor is under coordinated attack or experiencing a crisis, and ensures that hostile contact never reaches the target in the first instance.