Cyber ‘basketbullies’

Kim Waters
GEELONG is a hotspot for cyber-bullying among young basketballers, according to the sport’s state body.
Basketball Victoria has called on clubs and associations around Geelong to warn players that bullying other participants on social networking sites, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter was “unacceptable behaviour”.
The spokesperson said Basketball Victoria was considering a formal policy dealing with cyber and text-message bullying within the sport.
“It might not even be bullying, it could be just making inappropriate comments, racist or sexist remarks or venting frustration about a referee decision,” the spokesperson said.
“We’ve had players sending comments back and forth on sites like Facebook and they haven’t realised those comments are public. We won’t tolerate this sort of behaviour.”
The spokesperson said Basketball Victoria could suspend players who engaged in on-line or phone bullying.
“As a state governing body we need to have a clear policy in place to deal with these issues. It will be on a case-by-case basis but a player in a competition could be suspended depending on the severity of the issue.”
The spokesperon said Basketball Victoria’s tribunal had already dealt with “a number” of “Facebook issues”.
More hearings were pending, he said.
“We’ve emailed out the information regarding cyber bullying to our 167 associations and have asked them to speak to their clubs and members.”
A Basketball Victoria email from the body’s governance and operations manager warned players to avoid placing “themselves at risk” of tribunal hearings.
“Many of the remarks are being made with the posters’ believing that because those remarks can only be seen by people they have accepted as friends on their pages they will not be made public,” the email said.
“However, fortunately there are enough decent people around who bring this behaviour to the attention of basketball clubs or associations or Basketball Victoria. This occurs even when the posts are made by friends because those people recognise the harm and distress the behaviour can generate.”