This Safe Sport Day, Sport Integrity Australia is reminding the community that we all play an important role in ensuring children have a safe and fair sporting experience.
Safe Sport Day is an international day to raise awareness of the shared responsibility to safeguard children and young people playing sport.
The day champions the International Safeguards for Children in Sport, which are eight global principles developed by an alliance of more than 140 organisations globally to ensure organisation provide consistent protections to children around the world. Acting Deputy CEO - Safety in Sport at Sport Integrity Australia and Advisory Board member of the International Safeguarding Children in Sport, Dr Paul Oliver, said protecting children in sport should be a primary objective of all sporting organisations.
"It is every child's right to be safe during sport, and it is everybody's responsibility to protect those children, from sporting organisations to coaches to parents to carers," Dr Oliver said.
"It's important to us here at Sport Integrity Australia that the international principles are more than just theoretical aspirations within sport, but that they are practical tools with which we can help safeguard the future of sport and all those who participate in it."
"Across our organisation we have implemented processes, education tools and resources to guide and support sports to protect the rights of children and young people.
"By doing so, we are helping to ensure sports remain a safe, welcoming environment within our communities, now and into the future.
"We are committed to working towards safe sport for every child and we pledge to promote the safeguards through our networks, embed the safeguards in our work, and support Safe Sport Day."
In June 2023, Sport Integrity Australia launched a Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program. At its core, the program aims to embed a culture of child safety and member protection across all levels of sport in Australia.
Twenty-four sports have signed up in the past year, with discussions with other sports ongoing. Sixteen of these sports have completed the audit phase which has identified several key themes, such as safeguarding risk management, embedding safeguarding into strategic and integrity plans and recruitment to child-related positions.
Another way Sport Integrity Australia is supporting sports in keeping safe sporting environments is through the implementation of the National Integrity Framework.
Dr Paul Oliver said the framework ensured Australia has a consistent set of policies across all sport. "For the first time we have national standards regardless of which sport an athlete participates in. Together, we have drawn a line in the sand to highlight behaviours that have no place in sport and eradicate them," Dr Oliver said.
More than 80 recognised National Sporting Organisations and National Sporting Organisations for people with Disability have adopted the Framework and its policies.
Sport Integrity Australia works closely with the National Office for Child Safety in the development and implementation of national priorities to protect children and young people from child sexual abuse, and support victims and survivors.
