Venmo and the NCAA are teaming up to help protect student athletes from harassment, with a number of protections put in place to prevent bullying.
This collaboration comes as research shows that nearly half of U.S. teens and U.S. adults have faced some form of online harassment or cyberbullying, and the trend is rising.
A recent study by the NCAA also found that over 5,000 posts during a large dataset contained abusive, discriminatory, or threatening content. 12% of all abuse was found to be related to sports betting, with more than 740 instances.
“We applaud Venmo for taking action, and we need more social media companies and online platforms to do the same.” – Charlie Baker, NCAA President
As the college football season kicks off for yet another year, Venmo and the NCAA have launched a reporting hotline, among other features. This dedicated hotline is for student athletes and the NCAA to report potential cases of abuse for investigation and identify typologies of athlete harassment on Venmo.
Venmo and the NCAA have brought in a number of features
Student athlete resources have been created too, with Venmo providing a best practices guide for the young people to stay safe. This will be distributed directly through NCAA channels, including newsletters, emails, and e-learning modules.
David Szuchman, SVP, head of global financial crime and customer protection, PayPal, emphasized, “While unwanted interactions to athletes make up an extremely small percentage of transactions on Venmo, even a small number of these incidents is unacceptable. The safety and security of our users remain our highest priority.
“Harassment or abuse of any kind is not tolerated on the platform, and strict action is taken against users who violate our policies. Through these measures, we are taking decisive steps to help prevent the misuse of our platform and ensure all our users feel protected when they use Venmo.”
Going forward, the payment service will monitor student athletes’ accounts on an ongoing basis to help mitigate an influx of requests based on game performance. They will work with them to implement additional security measures as needed.
The company will also educate users on the possible outcomes of harassing athletes through unwanted requests to athletes, including potential account closure.
As NCAA President Charlie Baker notes, “The harassment we are seeing across various online platforms is unacceptable, and we need fans to do better.
“We applaud Venmo for taking action, and we need more social media companies and online platforms to do the same. Several states have passed laws to crack down on this behavior to protect student-athletes, and we hope more do the same because stopping this abuse requires action on multiple fronts.”
Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram
