Every person in sport, in every role, has the right to participate in an environment that is fun, safe and healthy, and to be treated with respect, dignity and fairness.

Bullying is any behavior that is offensive, abusive, belittling, intimidating or threatening – whether this is face to face, indirectly, or via communication technologies such as mobile phones and computers.  Cyber bullying is a form of bullying, which is carried out through an internet service such as email, a chat room, discussion group, instant messaging or web pages. It can also include bullying through mobile phone technologies such as SMS.

Examples of cyber bullying behavior are:
- Teasing and being made fun of;
- Spreading rumors online;
- Sending unwanted messages;
- Defamation.

Northshore Youth Soccer Association is concerned at the increasing number of complaints being made about the inappropriate use of text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites by young children about their classmates, teammates, and opponents.  These sites have been used to bully other soccer players, to criticize referees, and to make racist or sexist remarks about other participants.  This behavior is totally unacceptable in our sport and will not be tolerated.

NYSA’s Code of Conduct address bullying behaviors as well as a range of inappropriate behaviors including discrimination, harassment and abuse and provide a complaints process for dealing with incidents.  In accordance with NYSA’s Discipline Policy, behavior which is unacceptable and soccer related can be brought before the discipline committee, even if it didn’t occur on the soccer field.  NYSA will not hesitate in penalizing, inappropriate, soccer related, behavior which misuses mobile phones, internet networking sites or other technology.  NYSA will not allow or tolerate cyber bullying or bullying in general.

This policy statement is provided to members to assist them in identifying and dealing with cyber bullying within soccer and to provide a process for reporting such behavior should it occur in our sport.  If you believe that you or your child are being cyber bullied or know of a fellow soccer player who is being bullied please report this to the NYSA President.