Football Queensland (FQ) is pleased to announce a partnership with SocialProtect to combat online abuse and attacks on players, referees and administrators through social platforms.
SocialProtect is a downloadable mobile app that enables clubs, teams, and athletes to connect their social media accounts for real-time monitoring and automated containment of abuse without compromising passwords or account control.
The online moderation and protection tool automatically removes comments from social media posts or pages that contain harmful content, including cyber-bullying, hate speech, racial slurs, and scams, while providing features like a quarantine zone for review, educational resources, and multi-lingual support for identifying harmful keywords.
“Football Queensland is proud to partner with companies like SocialProtect, underscoring a shared commitment to prioritising the mental and physical well-being of participants by addressing and removing any instances of online abuse across social media platforms,” Football Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci said.
“Following successful implementation of the SocialProtect tool across FQ’s social media accounts and by top-level professional sports teams from Australia and around the world, we support extending this online protection tool to participants across Queensland clubs.
“The introduction of this service, aligned with the Protect Our Game initiative, strengthens FQ’s zero-tolerance policy against poor behavior, enhancing security to safeguard clubs, participants, and the public, thereby reducing mental impact and lowering self-harm risk.”
As part of a staged roll out, all clubs currently participating in the NPL Queensland Men’s and Women’s competitions will receive the service as part of their licence, enabling them to integrate SocialProtect into their club’s digital security network for the remainder of season. Remaining FQ affiliated clubs across Queensland can access the service at different points during the season through a small monthly subscription fee, ensuring protection for all participants.
“We are proud to partner with Football Queensland to provide this to NPL clubs throughout Queensland as a proactive step to keep our communities safe,” SocialProtect Founder Shane Britten said.
“We created SocialProtect to ensure all social media users can protect themselves and their followers from abusive comments and have on-demand access to our education resources.
“SocialProtect will keep full control in the hands of social media account owners – there is no need to share your password or credentials with us, we can’t post as you or read your DMs, we just keep you free from abuse.”
More information about SocialProtect can be found here.