Categories
Esports Australia Government

AESA join forces with eSafety and Australia’s major sporting organisations to tackle online abuse in sports.

The eSafety Commissioner and Australia’s major sporting organisations have joined forces to address online abuse, including racism, sexism, and homophobia, targeted at athletes in a signed statement to manage the risk of online abuse in sport.

Read more: https://www.esafety.gov.au/educators/corporate-and-community-education/playitfaironline

eSafety and 24 sporting organisations came together to discuss online abuse in sport at a roundtable this week and have all signed the Online Safety Statement of Commitment in response to athletes and staff across all sporting codes being increasingly subjected to high levels of serious online abuse.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said although sport in Australia is usually a powerful community builder, online interactions with athletes are not always positive.

“Where once fans were limited to yelling their encouragement or venting their frustrations from the stands or at their TVs, today social media allows people to anonymously communicate abuse directly to athletes. This abuse can be unrelenting and is often personal in nature,” Ms Inman Grant said.

“In recent times we have seen female athletes, those from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and diverse cultural and multilingual backgrounds increasingly becoming the targets of unimaginable online abuse, hatred, misogyny and racism.”

Ms Inman Grant said athletes are already under a tremendous amount of pressure to be at the top of their game. To then have to deal with serious and harmful online abuse can have devastating impacts on a person’s wellbeing and their sense of safety.

“Athletes are role models in our communities who are expected to be in the spotlight as part of their job and it’s important that we have policies and practices to protect them from the online abuse that is levelled at them,” Ms Inman Grant said.

“I commend the Australian sporting community in coming together to work with eSafety to ensure athletes and staff across all sporting codes have a safe and secure online work environment.”

The Online Safety Statement of Commitment has been signed by some of Australia’s most revered sporting codes and organisations. By signing this statement they are committing to:

  • Drive positive change and actively support the work of the eSafety Commissioner to help keep all Australians, from grassroots to professional athletes, staff and officials, safe online.
  • Draw upon the eSafety Commissioner’s resources to support, train and implement prevention strategies to support athletes and staff who are targets of online abuse.
  • Ensure internal policies and processes are in place to support athletes and organisations to report online abuse.
  • Support the eSafety Commissioner’s research agenda to inform future strategies and initiatives to protect those who are most at risk online.
  • Help to actively promote the principles of online safety through social media channels and communications campaigns.

Find out more about the #PlayItFairOnline campaign.

For more information / arrange an interview, please contact:

Email [email protected]

Categories
Australian Esports Esports Australia Government

Rising popularity of gaming in schools prompts esports research study

[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”4/6″][vc_column_text]

The South Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People, Australian Esports Association and RMIT University to examine the rising popularity of esports in schools.

The Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly and the Australian Esports Association (AESA) are collaborating with RMIT University to undertake research into the impact of esports in our schools.

Esports, as distinct from recreational gaming, refers to gaming practices that have the characteristics of organised competition, regular training, rules and regulation, record-keeping, and individual or team skill development coaching.

Currently, little research has been conducted on esports in Australia, which is rapidly expanding across education sectors. The brief study, which will take the form of a national online survey, will be directed at parents, guardians, and educators with the aim of exploring how much is understood about esports within the secondary school setting.

The research will gather specific information about esports in the school setting and seeks to hear directly from parents and educators and others involved in organising esports gaming for secondary students. The aim is to capture the everyday experiences and observations on the practices of esports in Australian high schools as well as gather some information on how network speeds and technology impacts esports access in the home.

Several major esports tournaments have been operating for some years, including the Australian Esports League High School Cup, League of Legends High School League and Flaktest High School Esports Tournaments such as Overwatch, Rocket League, Dota2 and Counter Strike. The research study will also provide more reliable information about who esports players are.

The online survey (Esports in the high school setting) will be open from 6 March to 31 March and can be accessed via the AESA website: https://www.aesa.org.au/sa-ccyp-esports-study/.

“By gathering information around who, how and when esports is being played across our high schools, we will gain insight into this growing sector and the role government, schools and the community can play in developing the necessary policy, planning and wellbeing tools to ensure positive outcomes for all young people involved.”

– From the Commissioner for Children and Young People Helen Connolly:

“Esports is growing rapidly and can provide the same positive social benefits to students as traditional sports without many of the typical barriers to entry. Understanding how youth are engaging with esports will help improve the overall governance, growth and environment of esports for both players and the community.”

– From the Australian AESA President Darren Kwan:

Background: The collaboration between the South Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Australian Esports Association (AESA) and RMIT University is designed to support development of appropriate policy, planning, infrastructure and initiatives for esports in Australia.

AESA is a member of the International Esports Federation (IESF) as a national member representing Australia. Currently the IESF comprises over 47 nations and is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency and actively working towards SportAccord and International Olympic Committee recognition. Additionally AESA is signatory to Ali Baba’s World Esports Games (WESG); the World Cyber Arena (WCA), Global Esports Alliance, and the World Esports Consortium (WeSCO), each collaborating to grow esports across the world; and the International University Sports Federations (FISU) who are laying the ground work for global university cooperation in esports.

Download a PDF copy of the CCYP media release.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/6″][image_with_animation image_url=”6798″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In”][image_with_animation image_url=”8299″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In”][image_with_animation image_url=”7499″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In”][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]