The AOC has developed strict rules on athlete behaviour heading into the London Olympics and the 50-page team agreement that includes a special "social media clause" which stipulates that they will have no legal liability for anything posted on social media sites.

The move has similarities to the British Olympic Association's (BOA) decision to issue its own athletes with Twitter guidelines later this year and comes following a high-profile gaffe from Australian swimming star Stephanie Rice.

The 22-year-old, who claimed three golds and three world records at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, came under huge criticism and lost her Jaguar sponsorship for a tweet last September.

After watching boyfriend Quade Cooper, the Australian rugby full-back, and his teammates beat South Africa she tweeted: "Suck on that faggots."

It was an incident that Australia does not want to see repeated at London 2012 and AOC vice-president Ron Harvey said that he expects the behaviour of athletes to lift at the Olympic Games.

"Some athletes and some sports seem to have forgotten the high standards and reputations that have been established over decades by their past champions," Harvey said.

"In this regard, let me say we in the Olympic movement have an obligation to protect the reputation of past and present Olympians."

The AOC have praised Rice after she granted permission to use video of her apology in seminars for the 1,200 Australian athletes aiming for the London Games.

Rice informed the AOC that she wanted to turn one of the more difficult moments of her life into a positive.

"She was happy for us to use the clip to show how easy it is to fall foul of the social media," AOC media spokesman Mike Tancred said.

"She is going to help other athletes not make the mistake."

"Since Beijing there has been an explosion in the social media.

"Young athletes, not just footballers, are getting into trouble on social media.

"They are not understanding that what they write to family or friends is not necessarily in private, and is in the public domain.

"We are all aware of what happened to Stephanie Rice, so now we are going to implement some rules in our team agreement which every athlete and coach has to sign for London.

"That is the AOC will have no legal liability for anything posted on a social media site by an athlete or team member.

"I want to stress we are not banning social media as long as it is in good taste and is positive."

Australia's London 2012 Chef de Mission Nick Green says athletes will be under the microscope more than ever and this will help maintain standards.

"If anyone does step out of line the reputation of the team is questioned - I think people feel a great sense of pride and a great sense of ownership and they don't want that to be jeopardised in any way," Green said.

Meanwhile the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) have claimed that they do not intend to follow the AOC and BOA by issuing Twitter guidelines at this stage.

Patrick Sandusky, Chief Communications Officer at the USOC, told insidethegames: "At this point we don't plan to issue any guidelines for twitter or any other social media.

"In the run up to the Games, we will certainly remind our athletes that comments in social media should be considered public and we hope they are in the spirit of being an Olympian, but we will not issue specific guidelines on how to utilize or limit various social media forums."

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