It has been bought to our attention that a number of TAC Cup players and staff members have created their own social media internet sites on platforms such as MySpace and Facebook. Whilst not wanting to prevent players and staff from expressing themselves, I feel it necessary to draw your attention to a number of potential dangers to both personal and TAC Cup reputations as well as player and staff obligations under their AFL Victoria registrations and employment agreements.
Players
Players should consider the nature of information that they put on their websites, including comments and written exchanges with friends. As a guiding principle, players should ask themselves "Would I be embarrassed and my reputation damaged if this information about me was available to AFL club recruiters and/or appeared in the media?" Inappropriate information on personal websites could affect player Draft prospects and could be used by the media if the player is drafted. Our major concern is that some media organisations that currently have access to these public sites could distort some of the information and convey an unflattering picture, not only of the individual athletes, but also of the AFL Victoria talent programs.
AFL Victoria Staff
This is a timely reminder of the need to be conscious of security, privacy, intellectual property and other issues associated with using web-based communication and social networking tools.
We understand that these media internet sites allow for personal profiles and information to be set for private access only. However it should be noted that just because sites are private, friends or associates who are granted access can still make any personal information available to others, including the media and may maliciously copy and distribute such information. There are also potential issues of defamation, identity theft and fraud that need to be recognised.
Last Modified on 13/03/2008 21:02