British Olympic Association director of communications Darryl Seibel believes that a ban on social media at the Winter Olympics would do more harm than good to the athletes competing in Sochi.

Team GB speed skater Elise Christie has been the victim of cyber-bulling on Twitter, but Seibel feels that the BOA still see more benefits to using social networks than not.

He told BBC Sport: "We wouldn't advise that right now. We see social media being more positive than not. You have to recognise, this is a part of their life.

"This is how athletes today grow up, how they communicate with their friends, family and supporters. If you take that away from them, you have to think about what the implications of that are.

"This isn't an environment where it's necessarily helpful to introduce new and different things to their rhythm, their pattern."

Seibel also admitted that he was worried about the ease with which athletes can receive messages of hate over the platforms.