It’s a standard cliche in US dramas that Pops is a bad father because he keeps on missing his son’s baseball games – it’s practically the central story-line of the 1992 film ‘Hook’, for example.

But modern technology is helping parents across the world. Suddenly they can be at work and watch their children’s sports events – all thanks to live streaming.

However, the DIF, the country’s biggest sports confederation, warns against such developments, arguing the cameras exert unnecessary extra pressure on the youngsters to perform and “be talented”. 

It is the body’s recommendation that “matches, exhibitions, training sessions and competitions for children and young people under the age of 18 should not be live streamed”.

Swimming against the current
Recently, a number of different sports clubs and associations have started using the services of Sportway, a specialist streaming company.

Swimming Denmark has already said it will not be following DIF’s recommendation.

“The parents use it to see their children, and the swimmers use it to check their style and if something can be improved,” Swimming Denmark head Allan Nyhus reasoned to DR.

“We live stream from around 8-10 events out of 500 per year. So you shouldn’t think that because you register your child for swimming, you will be filmed all the time.”

Further recommendations
DIF has already figured that some associations might reject the advice, given that they “are experts in their own sports”.

Accordingly it has come up with a list of recommendations. Among them are suggestions that viewers need a login, only the sporting activity should be filmed not the warm-up,  streaming-free zones should be marked out, and provisions should be made to ensure the broadcast can be stopped at any time “at short notice”.

“We will look at the recommendations to see if we can make the streaming even better,” said Nyhus.