Basketball Victoria is concerned at the increasing number of complaints being made about the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites by people involved in basketball, for unacceptable content.

We have seen examples where the sites have been used to bully other basketballers, to criticise referees and to make racist or sexist remarks about other participants. This sort of behaviour is totally unacceptable in basketball and will not be tolerated.

Many of the remarks are being made with the posters believing that because those remarks can only be seen by people they have accepted as friends on their pages, they will not be made public. However, fortunately, there are enough decent people around who bring this behaviour to the attention of Basketball Clubs or Associations or Basketball Victoria. This occurs even when the posts are made by friends because those people recognise the harm and distress this sort of behaviour can generate.

Under Basketball Victoria’s Tribunal By-laws and Member Protection By-laws, behaviour which is unacceptable can be brought to the Tribunal, even if it didn’t occur on the basketball court. As long as the incident is basketball related, the Tribunal can deal with it. A number of Facebook issues have already been dealt with by the Tribunal and other hearings are pending.

Basketball Victoria will have no hesitation in reporting to the Tribunal incidents who misuse such sites if it relates to basketball. Please be mindful of other basketball participants and don’t place yourself at risk of finding yourself reported to the Tribunal, as has happened to several people already.