Every child has the right to experience sport and activities in a safe environment, free from bullying and abuse.
As in many settings, bullying can and does happen in sport. All sport and activity providers have an important role to play in creating a positive culture that challenges bullying behaviour. This guidance will help your sports club or activity to develop an environment where everyone respects each other and works together to stop bullying.
Understanding bullying behaviour
The Anti-Bullying Alliance's definition of bullying is:
"The repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group by another person or group, where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be physical, verbal or psychological. It can happen face-to-face or virtually."
Bullying can involve people of any age and can take place anywhere; at home, school, sports club or activity, or whilst using online platforms, games or technologies (cyberbullying). Bullying can be more common in particular ‘hotspots’, these locations might be more secluded or have fewer witnesses, such as changing rooms or toilets.
How bullying behaviour may appear in your sport or activity
Bullying can include a range of different actions and behaviours; these could take place on their own or be combined and involve 2 individuals, a group of people, peers or spectators.
Possible bullying actions and behaviours
- physical – hitting, pushing, kicking, poking, biting, pinching or any other sort of physical assault and unwanted physical contact or touching
- verbal – abusive comments, name calling, insults, banter, spreading rumours, belittling, sarcasm and inappropriate sexual proposition
- emotional - threatening, humiliating, undermining, constant criticism, using hand gestures, excluding, isolating, manipulation, coercion and excluding a child from a friendship group or activities
- online or cyberbullying - sending threatening, upsetting, abusive or harassing messages via text or on social media, chat rooms or online games (trolling). Cyberbullying can also include creating and sharing embarrassing or malicious images or videos, excluding someone from an online games, hoax calls, voting against someone in an abusive poll, setting up hate groups, chats or sites about a particular individual and creating fake accounts, hijacking or stealing online identities to embarrass a young person or cause trouble using their name
For more information, take a look at our banter vs bullying webinar and the NSPCC Learning's protecting children from bullying and cyberbullying guidance.
Identity based bullying
Bullying can be based on any aspect of an individual’s characteristics such as a person's actual or perceived; gender, age, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or their appearance and mannerisms.
Racism or racial bullying in sport
Racism or racial bullying focuses on race, ethnicity, or culture. This can include racist jokes, using offensive names, physical or verbal attacks or engaging in micro-aggressions which are often indirect and subtle.
Children from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities are more likely to be bullied than other groups. This bullying can extend beyond the individual to impact the wider community and some groups are more likely to be racially bullied (including Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller, asylum seeker, refugee and children with a mixed ethnic background).
Racial bullying is often seen in sport and has been widely reported by the media featuring some high-profile individuals such as Marcus Rashford MBE, Sir Lewis Hamilton and Priyanaz Chatterji who have spoken out about experiencing racism in their chosen sports.
For further information visit Kick it out, an anti-racism sport campaign.
Homophobic and transphobic bullying
Homophobic bullying is discrimination against an individual, treating them unfairly because they are, or are perceived to be, lesbian, gay or bisexual.
Transphobic bullying is discrimination against an individual because their gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth or perhaps because they do not conform to stereotypical gender identities.
Coaches, officials, staff and volunteers should be aware of gender identity and how to recognise homophobic and transphobic language and behaviours. This language and behaviour should be avoided and challenged. It is also useful to include what language and behaviours are acceptable within your sport club or activities codes of conduct.
For further guidance, see our safeguarding LGBTQ+ young people.
Bullying, disability and neurodiversity
Children and young people with disabilities can be particularly vulnerable to bullying behaviour. Research suggests that they are twice as likely as other children to experience persistent bullying than children with no disabilities.
These added risks for d/Deaf or disabled children can include:
- the increased likelihood of social isolation
- having fewer contacts than non-disabled children which can mean limited access to talk to somebody about any worries or concerns
- being unable to fully understand, resist or avoid bullying behaviour
- being viewed as a ‘safe target’ for people displaying bullying behaviour
For advice about creating an inclusive environment read our safeguarding d/Deaf and disabled children advice.