Review of the evidence on safeguarding children in sport

• Author: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (European Commission), ECORYS
• Pages: 14-19

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3.0 Review of the evidence on safeguarding children in

sport

3.1 Introduction

A literature review on the subject of sa feguarding children in sport was completed in

order to build a contextual understanding for t he mapping review of policy measures

and initiatives. Additional sources were identified through the stakeholder consultations

carried out for the study.

The review found that there i s an emerging body of evidence on the magnitude of

violence against children in sport and the effectiveness of specific safeguarding

initiatives. Sexual, gender-based and physical violence (i ncluding sexual abuse, sexual

harassment, peer aggression, forced physical exertion and self-harm) are covered more

extensively in the literature while there was found to be less focus on psychological

violence (including bullying, emotional abuse, neglect, virtual maltreatment,

discrimination and hazing).

This section will firstly discuss the various definitions regarding safeguarding children in

sport and th e types of safeguarding issues identified across the literature reviewed. It

goes on to present empirical evidence on the findings from the literature on the

magnitude of the problem, informing key ar eas for consideration in the research. A ful l

list of references is presented in Annex One.

3.2 Definitions

The study team reviewed the various definitions regarding safeguarding children in sport

in addition to types of safeguarding issues referred to in the literatur e. It is appar ent

that there a re n o standardised concepts or uniform terminology used in defining the

scope of safeguarding children in sport. A review of these definiti ons, including those

applied to this study, and types of safeguarding issues is presented below.

The definition of ‘child’ used in this study is that provided by the United Nations

Convention of the Rights of the Child. The Convention defines a 'child' as “a person

below the age of 18, unless the laws of a particular country set the legal age for

adulthood younger.”16

The International Safeguards for Children in Sport Working Group produced a guide with

the terminology and a set of standards for implementing the safeguards for sports

organisations working with children.17 According to these safeguards, Safeguarding

children against violence in sport refers to all actions ensuring the safety of all

children involved in different sport clubs and activities and measures put in place to

ensure that safety.18

Moreover, child safeguarding and child protection are often thought to have simil ar

meanings, but there is a distinction. Broadly speaking, safeguarding children can be

defined as keeping all children safe from harm, abuse, violence, exploitation and

neglect.19 In contrast, child protection is protecting an individual that has been

16 UNCRC (1989) United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Resolution adopted by

the General Assembly. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations.

17 International Safeguards for Children in Sport Working Group (2016): International Safeguards

for Children in Sport.

18 Ibid.

19 Sport and Development. Available at: https://www.sportanddev.org/en/learn-more/child-

protection-and-safeguarding/what-child-safeguarding-sport .