LA28 Must Confront the Digital Crisis Facing Our Youth

As the Winter Olympic Games ended in Milan Cortina, the next test for the Olympic Movement is not only athletic excellence but whether it will confront the significant changes that the IOC President Kirsty Coventry has announced now need to be made consider the digital digital age and crisis harming young people’s wellbeing.

During the last number of weeks the Winter Games, has once again provided inspirational moments, albeit for a selected number of the IOC member countries the world once again celebrates human endurance, unity and the power of sport to inspire across borders. But as attention turns to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, a far more complex contest is unfolding - one that will define the future of a generation.

Last week In California, a major legal case is examining the role of social media platforms in contributing to youth addiction and mental health harm, with Mark Zuckerberg defending the impact of Meta Platforms and its products. The case may focus on corporate accountability, but its implications are global.

This is no longer simply a technology debate. It is a public health crisis.

Across continents, young people are reporting unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness and sleep disruption. Sedentary behaviour has increased sharply. Online comparison culture distorts identity formation. Algorithms engineered for engagement reward outrage, perfection and dependency.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is accelerating inequality. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has called for a $38 billion global fund to address AI governance gaps and digital inequality. Meanwhile, the African Union has urged greater investment in digital literacy and youth employment pathways to ensure young Africans are not left behind.

These interventions are necessary. But they are not enough.

What is missing is an integrated approach, one that connects digital opportunity with physical wellbeing, community engagement and ethical responsibility. This is where sport must step forward.

Sport remains one of the few truly global institutions capable of mobilising young people positively. The International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee have long championed excellence, respect and friendship. Yet LA28 presents an opportunity to expand that mission: to make youth digital wellbeing a formal Olympic legacy priority.

Structured sport participation offers a powerful counterbalance to digital excess. It promotes physical movement in an increasingly sedentary world. It fosters face-to-face social interaction. It builds resilience, emotional regulation and teamwork. It provides identity beyond online validation and metrics.

But sport must evolve. It cannot simply coexist with digital culture; it must help shape it.

Los Angeles is uniquely positioned for this leadership. It sits at the crossroads of global entertainment, technology and sport. Silicon Valley’s influence and Hollywood’s storytelling power converge in a city that understands both the promise and peril of the digital age.

Imagine if LA28 launched a “Digital Balance & Youth Wellbeing Charter” alongside its sporting ambitions. Imagine athlete ambassadors speaking openly about screen-time discipline and mental health. Imagine community sport hubs embedding digital literacy, AI awareness and online safeguarding into youth programmes. Imagine Olympic sponsors committing to ethical tech standards that prioritise young users’ wellbeing.

This would not be an attack on innovation. It would be a maturation of it.

Technology is not the enemy. Indeed, digital platforms have amplified sport’s reach, democratised storytelling and connected fans across continents. But when engagement metrics overshadow human impact, recalibration becomes essential.

If the United Nations is mobilising billions to address AI inequality, sport should advocate for investment that links digital literacy to community-based physical activity. If the African Union is prioritising youth employment in the digital economy, then sport can provide pathways into sport-tech entrepreneurship, data analytics, creative media and AI-enhanced coaching anchored in ethical frameworks.

The stakes could not be higher. A generation is growing up more connected than any before it, yet often more isolated. More informed yet more vulnerable to misinformation. More visible yet more anxious about identity.

The Olympic Movement has always spoken of legacy. Traditionally, this has meant stadiums, infrastructure and participation rates. But the true legacy of LA28 will be measured differently.

It will be measured by whether young people feel stronger, not more fragile.

By whether digital tools empower rather than exploit.

By whether global sport recognises that medals are not the only metrics that matter.

As the Winter Olympic flame is extinguished, the next flame must ignite a broader responsibility. The greatest competition facing humanity today is not between nations on a medal table, but between distraction and discipline, profit and purpose, algorithm and agency.

LA28 has the opportunity to demonstrate that global sport can lead in the digital age, not as a passive beneficiary of technology, but as an active guardian of youth wellbeing.

The world does not need another event that dazzles and disappears. It needs a Games that confronts reality.

Because the future of sport is inseparable from the future of our young people and their wellbeing cannot be left to algorithms alone.