Andy Murray issues ban on his kids to prevent ‘damaging’ situation | Tennis | Sport
After opening up on the “hostility” he was subjected to and how he found abuse “difficult” at the beginning of his career, Murray told the BBC: “I think it’s positive any time anyone can speak out about it. It’s great that [Katie] talked about it.
“Athletes across all sports have been discussing this for a long time, but it hasn’t really changed. Hopefully something can get done soon.”
The 2013 and 2016 Wimbledon champion admitted he was unsure of how the problem can be solved, but shared that he and his wife are purposefully keeping their four children off social media.
“If I’m being honest I don’t know,” a disappointed Murray added. “Me and my wife are trying to keep our children off social media until they are much older, because I think it can be pretty damaging.”
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Murray’s children are all between the ages of nine and four and some social media applications have a minimum age as low as 13.
The Government’s Online Safety Act is currently being rolled out in an attempt to protect users from illegal or harmful content as well as stricter measures regarding child safety.
But figures released by the WTA Tour revealed that last year, over 8,000 abusive messages were sent to professional female players, prompting calls for the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to do more.
“I don’t know whose responsibility it is, I don’t know if the government needs to do more to tackle it, or [X owner] Elon Musk and people like that can do more to stop these messages getting through to individuals,” Murray continued.
“I don’t mean just athletes, but then you get into the whole debate around free speech and it’s a difficult one.”
The Scot also cautioned athletes that they would be wise “trying to avoid looking at the comments and going on our phones immediately after matches”, but admitted that it should not be forced on the players to alter their behaviour to curb online abuse.
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