Twitch, Amazon’s video game streaming platform, is cracking down on the proliferation of nudity. Video game streaming is the practice of recording oneself playing video games, often with commentary.
In recent years, streamers have been pushing the boundaries of commentary, including sexually suggestive costumes and visuals. While these streamers have reaped financial benefits, it also leads to questions about their audience’s age. Eurogamer says:
Further, streams labelled with sexual themes (among others) will no longer be included in homepage recommendations, though remain in the category browse directories.
The sexual content policy also initially allowed for artistic nudity, but the platform was soon inundated with sexual content pushing the boundaries of Twitch’s policies.
Twitch is incredibly popular with younger audience, which explains why the platform is seeking to ban adult content. Children being casually exposed to these images is a major problem. Kotaku continues:
As December 2023 was underway, some streamers cleverly thought to play around with Twitch’s restrictions around nudity, broadcasting in such a fashion that implied they were completely naked on camera. Twitch, in response, began banning folks before shifting gears to allow various forms of “artistic nudity” to proliferate on the platform. However, after immediately rescinding the decision and expressing that being naked while livestreaming is a no-no, the company is now making it clear that implied nudity is also forbidden, and that anyone who tries to circumvent the rules will face disciplinary action.
In a January 3 blog post, the company laid out the new guidelines regarding implied nudity on the platform, which is now prohibited effective immediately. Anyone who shows skin that the rules deem should be covered—think genitals, nipples “for those who present as women,” and the like—will face “an enforcement action,” though Twitch didn’t specify what that means. So, if you’re wearing sheer or partially see-through clothing, or use black bars to cover your private parts, then you’re more than likely to get hit with some sort of discipline.
Adult content on the internet is nothing new, and child protection measures have been more or less effective. This trend will probably end soon, as many creators rely on Twitch’s money as their main source of income.
READ NEXT: NASA Readies New Tech To Help Astronauts
