Digital Safety for Coaches
Tips for Drawing the Line Online with Youth Athletes
June is Internet Safety Month, a time to pause and reflect on how all of us can help promote and model safer, responsible internet use—especially for the youth athletes in our lives.
Coaches, assistant coaches, and volunteer coaches face the challenge of balancing regular communication with youth athletes while maintaining appropriate boundaries online.
While leaning on your organization’s policies around electronic communication is a helpful first step, it’s important to also establish your own boundaries around texting, calling, social media use, and chat groups.
Key Online Boundaries & How to Set Them
Drawing the line online by setting boundaries is an essential part of fostering a healthy coach-athlete relationship, often leading to a stronger bond built on respect and centered on safety.
Below, we’re sharing four key boundaries we recommend coaches set with athletes.
We recognize that it can be challenging and at times uncomfortable to have a boundary setting conversation. Because of this, we’ve also included a direct, clear statement you can say if an athlete oversteps one of these boundaries.
Boundary 1
Enforce practices around social media privacy: Set a policy that you will not follow your athletes on social media and ask them to respect your privacy by not following you.
- If an athlete follows you on social media, say: “Part of keeping my personal life private is not connecting with athletes through my personal social media accounts. As part of a respectful relationship, please don’t follow my personal accounts.”
Boundary 2
Require your team’s group chat to focus on their sport: Establish rules around your team’s group chat, including topics that are OK and not OK.
- If your team starts a group chat, say: “Having a team group chat can be fun, but let’s keep it focused on learning about and growing in our sport.”
Boundary 3
Eliminate one-on-one direct texting or messaging: Require another adult—like an assistant coach or an athlete’s parent/guardian—to be on all texts or messages between you and your athletes.
- If an athlete texts or DMs you directly, say: “I will try to respect your privacy, but texts and messages with me must also include your parents or other coaching staff.”
Boundary 4
Establish “digital curfews”: Set times of day when you will not respond to messages, chats, or other electronic communication.
- If an athlete texts, DMs, or calls you at inappropriate times, say: “Unless it’s an emergency, I will only send and respond to messages between 8AM and 8PM.”
Model Respect
Coaches often serve as role models for athletes. Demonstrate setting boundaries around electronic communication to help youth athletes become more comfortable with setting their own boundaries—an important life skill in sport and beyond.
Remember, at its core, boundary setting is about creating a relationship built on respect. By establishing boundaries around online interactions, you’re signaling to your athletes that you would like them to respect your personal life and time away from coaching.
Help your athletes also understand how they can respect their teammates and interact safely in digital spaces. Share our tips with your team about how to be respectful online.