Broadcaster Erin Molan tackles online abuse in Sky News documentary

Former NRL Footy Show host Erin Molan spent 2022 changing things up. She moved networks, launched her own current affairs show, and began a campaign to stamp out online bullying.

Erin Molan is dedicated to helping stamp out cyber abuse. Picture: Justin Lloyd

For the decade leading up to her departure from the Nine Network last year, former NRL Footy Show host Erin Molan watched every single first-grade rugby league match — close to 2000 games — as part of her broadcasting duties.

In 2022, Molan changed things up – she moved networks, established her own news and current affairs show and redirected her passion for sports reporting into a dedicated campaign to help stamp out cyber abuse.

The result of her crusade against the horrors of online bullying is a documentary, Haters Online: Erin Molan Fights Back, which will screen on Sky News Australia on Tuesday night.

The one-hour special, and the long-running campaign itself, is searingly personal for the 39-year-old, who has been subjected to vicious attacks on various social media platforms over the past few years.

“I’m comfortable with people going online and saying they don’t like me, or being critical. Robust conversation and debate is really important,” she told The Australian.

“But where I thought we needed to draw a line was when people threatened to rape my child or saying they wanted me to die during child birth.

“One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the fact that kids tell me they were bullied on social media, and the only thing that got them through was a support group they found through YouTube or Instagram.”

The documentary features harrowing first-person accounts — from people with public profiles as well as those without — about the relentless threats and terror that online trolls have subjected them to, and the damaging, and sometimes tragic, consequences of such abuse.

While Molan notes she’s “passionate about free speech”, she is glad the new Online Safety Act, which was introduced by the Morrison government and came into effect in January, goes some way to help protect children and adults from cyber hate.

The act introduced expansive online safety measures, addressing issues such as the removal of harmful online content. It also criminalises the sharing of intimate images without a person’s consent.

Molan first opened up publicly about being on the receiving end of social media abuse in 2017, when she was part of Nine’s NRL commentary team and a co-host on the network’s Footy Show — at the time, she was overwhelmed by online threats to her.

One Facebook user sent her vile messages, including that he hoped she and her then-unborn baby died. The case went to court and the offender was fined $1000 and given an eight-month suspended sentence.

Molan joined Sky News Australia at the beginning of the year. She now hosts her own show, Erin, and is a regular on-air commentator on politics and national security.

She also co-hosts 2Day FM’s breakfast show alongside Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee, and writes a weekly column in The Daily Telegraph. Molan says her career has changed significantly since moving on from football reporting and commentary.

“I have not watched a game of rugby league since I left Channel 9 at the end of last year. I’ve spent the entire year avoiding it, which is quite bizarre given I would watch eight games a week for the past 10 years of my life as a football host,” she said. “I really needed a break from it.”

As for what she now spends most of her time doing when she’s at home: “I put the TV on and it’s Sky News or it’s Fox News or it’s Sky News UK. When I listen to radio, it’s news radio.

“I don’t really do anything apart from being a mother and work, but I think for me that’s what makes me happy.”

Haters Online: Erin Molan Fights Back airs on Sky News Australia on Tuesday at 7pm AEDT

Originally published as Broadcaster Erin Molan tackles online abuse in Sky News documentary