PhD Title: Project Safety Net: The risks and opportunities of safeguarding adolescents on social media in relation to organised sport.
Supervisors: Professor Victoria Goodyear (University of Birmingham), Professor Daniel Rhind (Loughborough University), and Dr Laura Wright (University of Birmingham).
Project Safety Net is an ESRC funded study investigating the risks and opportunities of safeguarding adolescents on social media in relation to organised sport. The purpose of this research is to explore young player/athletes’ social media practices related to wellbeing and performance by exploring: (i) how young player/athletes use social media; (ii) the associations between social media use, mental wellbeing, and performance for young people in sport; (iii) the risk and protective factors related to social media use in the context of wellbeing and performance. This is a multi-method, cross-sectional observational study where data is collected across three phases: (1) a quantitative, online survey; (2) qualitative case studies; (3) co-designing of key recommendations/guidelines for practice to support player/athlete wellbeing and performance in the digital age.
For context, most young people (age 16-24) in the UK have a social media profile; using platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and WhatsApp as prosumers. In adult player/athlete populations, they use social media to seek information to help their performance, for entertainment and relaxation, to communicate with coaches and teammates, to connect with the public, and for self-promotion. Equally, evidence indicates negative impacts such as exposure to misinformation and harmful or inappropriate content online, and public and private virtual maltreatment. National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and other sport institutions have safeguarding policies to protect their players/athletes from harm. However, in the UK there are currently no evidence-based guidelines for sport organisations to deal with potential online harm for young players/athletes nor is there considerate mention of safeguarding in the social media context. Furthermore, current narratives are risk-based and favour prohibition over promotion.