The digital sideline: Exploring cyberbullying and online hate by people connected to children's sports

Australia's eSafety Commissioner published research in June 2026 showing that 6 percent of children aged 10 to 17 who participated in organised sporting activities experienced online hate by someone connected to their sport. The report draws on a nationally representative survey of 1,972 children who took part in organised sport, conducted between December 2024 and February 2025. Children who had been cyberbullied by someone connected to their sports reported it happened via messaging, group chats or calls in 59 percent of cases, comments or posts on social media in 36 percent, online video games or forums in 23 percent, and comments on platforms run by their sports team or club in 18 percent. Perpetrators included a teammate or someone in another team in 66 percent of cases, a coach, trainer or referee in 20 percent, a parent or family member of a teammate or opponent in 19 percent, another child who watches or follows their team in 20 percent, and an adult who watches or follows their team in 16 percent.

Cyberbullying in children's sport presents unique detection challenges because the perpetrator is often a known contact—a teammate, coach or parent—rather than an anonymous stranger, and because harm unfolds in closed group chats and team messaging channels where standard platform moderation has limited visibility. Guardii's athlete-abuse detection module, specifically designed to identify sustained targeting, escalation and coercion in these contexts, monitors direct-message conversations across platforms used by junior sporting organisations, flagging hostile contact patterns before they reach the child and surfacing a child experiencing distress to a parent, club safeguarding officer or school. The eSafety data confirms that 59 percent of sport-related cyberbullying occurs in messaging and group chats, exactly the environment where Guardii operates, and where a detection system that recognises harm patterns—rather than waiting for a child or parent to lodge a formal complaint—delivers the earliest possible intervention.