Social Media Policy

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

The Social Media policy acknowledges the potential for social media to allow individuals within Boxing, including athletes, coaches, officials, spectators and others, to use social media for personal use. Sometimes these individuals will use social media to communicate information related to Boxing and/or express their opinions related to their experiences with Boxing. It is expected that these posts will be positive in nature.

The rapid rise in the use of social media has created a need to find more effective ways to manage its use in an ethical and socially responsible manner. 

A single piece of content posted to social media has the potential to go “viral" in a matter of minutes. 

This can be great for spreading valuable messages and positive stories that benefit Boxing and/or individuals involved.

However, the use of social media can also be detrimental to the sport of Boxing and/or individuals if unfavourable messages or stories are communicated.

It only takes a slip of the keyboard or a momentary lack of common sense and that one small mistake can escalate quickly into a full-blown social media crisis. 

Unfortunately, social media is sometimes used by individuals as a platform for communicating messages of discrimination, defamation, harassment and bullying, which can be further amplified due to the viral nature of social media. These activities can bring both the individuals and sport of Boxing into disrepute. 

Member protection, child protection, confidentiality and copyright breaches can also occur via social media. This often occurs as a result of a lack of understanding by the individuals posting the offending content.

However, ignorance should be no excuse.

In an attempt to avoid these issues and incidents, Boxing Australia is providing a Social Media Policy with guidelines and rules around acceptable social media use.

It is hoped that these measures will reduce the number of issues and incidents that arise via social media that could potentially harm individuals and/or damage the reputation of the sport of Boxing and the individuals involved.