In conjunction with Rugby Australia, Rugby Union SA has implemented Social Protect – a tool designed to safeguard our community and participants from online abuse. At RUSA, we believe this is an important step in addressing the growing risks of online bullying and ensuring we meet our duty to protect the health and wellbeing of our rugby community.
What is Social Protect? Social Protect is an AI-powered social media protection tool that automatically detects and removes abusive, harmful or offensive comments in real time from your club’s social media pages, posts and livestreams. Any removed comments are recorded in a secure admin portal, which can be accessed by Rugby Australia and member unions if further action is required under our codes of conduct and policies.
A simple example: you’ve probably seen spam comments directing people to “watch live streams” with unsafe links. Social Protect will now automatically delete these before they reach your followers.
Available to all clubs This tool is available free of charge to all RUSA clubs. It is compatible with Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and can be set up in just a few minutes.
While use of this tool is optional, it is designed to:
- Reduce the workload on club administrators
- Protect volunteers, players, and supporters from harmful online behaviour
- Strengthen our collective efforts to provide a safe and welcoming rugby environment
By adopting Social Protect, Rugby Union SA and our clubs are taking a proactive stand - keeping the focus where it belongs: on the game, our players, and the community that supports them.
