Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker have warned that young athletes could be driven to suicide if social media companies do not stamp out abusive comments, and fear rising Indigenous stars will hide their cultural heritage to avoid racist slurs online.
A Code Sports Investigation has found that Australia’s Indigenous athletes and high-profile female athletes receive inappropriate, racist and sexist comments on average every two days.
Data compiled by SocialProtect, an app that blocks abusive comments before they can be seen by the owners of verified accounts, also reveals that NRL players receive abusive comments every three days.
Anecdotal evidence suggests a negative comment posted on social media gains 12 times the traction of a positive comment, hence the reticence of these companies to clamp down on trolls because it will cut engagement time and impact their business models.
READ THE FULL CODE SPORTS INTERVIEW AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
NRL stars Mitchell and Walker are leading the charge for Government intervention on online bullying, demanding laws that force social media companies to require identification for every account created.
“Suicide happens every day because of online bullying,” Mitchell told Code Sports Investigations.
“People see it, government see it, these social media platforms see it, but they don’t want to make change.
“So the shoe has got to be on the other foot and they’ve got to realise, what about if it happened to their families, the people that run the social media platforms, what if it happens to people in political roles, or their families are going through it, then what? Are you going to change then, because you’re getting affected by it?
“Why can’t we do it now, and make this change now before anything does happen.
Walker added: “Suicide is prevalent in society, it’s becoming more common especially in Aboriginal communities, so those stats are quite alarming and the effects it could have on someone going through this stuff, if they’re reading this racism and these bad comments on social media, you don’t know what they’re going through behind closed doors.
“That’s the dangerous part of what people have to go through, they read this sort of stuff and that could potentially happen. We don’t want it to happen, but that’s the scary road it’s going down.”
The South Sydney pair fear for the next generation of Indigenous athletes who are coming through amid a rising number of racist trolling attacks on our best NRL and AFL players.
Mitchell also revealed the death threats he has received with some even threatening to douse him in petrol.
READ THE FULL CODE SPORTS INTERVIEW AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
