Hundreds of families were subjected to child sex abuse images and racial slurs after Scottish Swimming’s virtual workout was hacked with disturbing content.
The Zoom event, which offered youngsters the chance to train live alongside star swimmers such as Duncan Scott and Aimee Wilmott during the coronavirus lockdown, was flooded with abusive footage within minutes of starting.
One parent told STV News: “The moment we were invited in and it started we were immediately subject to shouted racial slurs followed by images of child sex abuse.
“[I] really feel for the Scottish Swimming guys, given what they were trying to do but it really was quite shocking what was seen.”
Scottish Swimming was forced to shut down the video link after the footage was “shared with circa 300 people that had signed in to the event”.
The sport’s governing body has reported the incident to police and apologised for the incident.
A statement said: “Scottish Swimming sincerely apologises for the incident that happened this morning (Tuesday, April 14) during an organised Zoom event, where the aquatics community were invited to work out alongside our performance athletes.
“At the end of last week we shared information about the workout across our social media platforms, asking those interested in participating to log into a link that was shared publicly this morning.
“Unfortunately the link was ‘Zoom-bombed’ with disturbing content shared with circa 300 people that had signed in to the event.
“The video was immediately shut down and the incident referred to the police and their cyber-crime unit.
“We apologise to everyone involved and deeply regret the outcome of today’s event.”
Scottish Swimming will look to reschedule the event and has begun a full review of the process, as it looks to prevent any similar incidents happening again.
The statement added: “At a time when the aquatics community was pulling together and supporting one another so positively, it is very upsetting to have a minority cause upset and distress during the lockdown.”
Duncan Scott took to Twitter following the incident and said: “I am in disgust. Our open invite WOD cancelled due to a sick individual.
“I am sorry for what everyone and more importantly what the kids that were apart of the WOD had to see!”
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