Technology Supporting Human Safeguarding

The report demonstrates both the scale of the challenge and the importance of combining technological innovation with human expertise. During the two Games, CAPS monitored more than 26,000 athletes’ and officials’ social media accounts across 45 languages in Paris and 56 languages in Milano Cortina. Artificial intelligence initially flagged approximately 242,000 potentially abusive posts before specialist analysts verified around 24,700 messages that genuinely breached safeguarding standards.

Importantly, the IOC stresses that technology alone is not enough. Once abusive content had been confirmed, the cyber team worked directly with social media platforms, investigated the origin of the abuse and provided reports to affected individuals. Meanwhile, the IOC Safeguarding team prioritised the most serious cases within 24 hours while offering psychosocial support where required.

As the report concludes:

“Cyber protection systems alone are not enough,” highlighting the need to combine technology with “human oversight, welfare support, clear policies and collaboration.”

A Growing Safeguarding Challenge

Perhaps the report’s greatest contribution is recognising that online abuse is not simply a social media problem but a safeguarding issue with genuine real-world consequences.

The IOC notes that online abuse can cause lasting psychological, reputational, physical and economic harm. It can affect not only individual athletes but also coaches, officials, organisations and entire sporting communities, while rapidly escalating in both scale and intensity.

One particularly important observation concerns what the IOC describes as “lawful but awful” content. Much online abuse does not breach criminal law or platform policies sufficiently to be removed, yet it can still inflict significant harm. This places greater emphasis on prevention, education, digital literacy and welfare support rather than relying solely on content moderation.

The report also highlights how advances in artificial intelligence are creating new safeguarding risks, including deepfakes, fake accounts, automated harassment campaigns and increasingly sophisticated forms of impersonation.

Beyond the Olympic Games

The report reinforces that safeguarding is becoming an increasingly important component of organisational purpose and governance. As sport continues to embrace digital engagement, organisations must ensure that athlete welfare extends beyond physical venues into online environments where many interactions now take place.

The IOC’s Cyber-Abuse Protection Service, first introduced at Paris 2024 before being expanded for Milano Cortina 2026, provides a practical model that other international federations, leagues and major events may increasingly look to adopt.

The International Olympic Committee is currently ranked among the Top 15 most purposeful sports organisations in the GSS SPI Index, achieving a Purpose Advanced (C+) SPI Rating. Initiatives such as CAPS demonstrate how safeguarding is evolving beyond compliance towards proactive protection, combining technology, governance and human support to create safer sporting environments.

As online abuse continues to evolve, so too must sport’s response. The message from the IOC is clear: protecting athletes today requires safeguarding wherever they compete—and wherever they connect.