Twitch updates sexual content guidelines amid ‘topless’ meta backlash - Dexerto
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Twitch has updated its guidelines on sexual content following mass outrage over a new 'topless' meta that gained popularity on the site.

Twitch Updated their Sexual Content Policy:

  • Changes: Certain content now allowed with labels
  • Artistic Nudity: Permitted under Sexual Themes Label
  • Game Nudity: Contextual; labels necessary
  • Body Painting: Acceptable with appropriate label
  • Mature Games: Label generally covers content
  • Stream Visibility: Impacted by content labels
  • Twerking, grinding and pole dancing are now allowed without a label.

Via https://twitter.com/Dexerto/status/1735024184114245689

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872Y

The twitch boob meta always fascinated me. It’s literally trivial to not watch thirst streams if you don’t like thirst streams. But people on the internet get so fucking upset about it, and I assume at least 100% of them consume actual porn.

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192Y

My only problem with it is that it’s always on the homepage under recommended, despite the fact I’ve never watched any streams like that. Even if I tell the site “not interested” it still shows the content. I only get on twitch to watch content for one game and from a small number of creators.

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452Y

For me it’s how popular and accessible twitch is for kids.

I’ve never really used twitch for anything except getting drops for games (160p and muted lol) but every time I see titty streamers getting recommended despite never watching any

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8
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2Y

Yeah I guess I don’t really give a shit what other people’s kids do

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92Y

You may want to. You will eventually be interacting with them. Or your kids will.

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6
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2Y

I am not responsible for ridding the world of maladjusted assholes. I simply do not have the energy.

If there is no other imperative for caring about something beyond “but what about the poorly supervised children?” then that thing is generally going straight to the bottom of my concern list. If the worst thing that poorly supervised children get into is cleavage on twitch, then I’d actually call that a pretty massive win.

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32Y

How will 14 year olds accidentally seeing a boob on twitch instead of doing what most 14 year olds do by actively searching out porn-esque content going to turn them into a person I dont want to interact with?

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172Y

Personally, as long as kids are getting access to good sex ed I don’t see any issue with them stumbling across sexualized content online. We all did it at some point in our lives, digital or not. It’s a part of growing up. I also don’t think sexualized content should be seen as more problematic than violent content. If anything it should be less problematic (and to be clear I don’t find either to be an issue personally)

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262Y

Personally, as long as kids are getting access to good sex ed

i have bad news for most of the US for you

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72Y

That’s definitely something to improve, but hiding sex from online spaces is not going to help.

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42Y

Oh, sure, we probably agree. A distressing amount of people have really bad takes on sex, sex education, gender, history, relationships… a lot of things, really. Conservatives especially have egregiously bad views.

I remember when I first saw This Film Is Not Yet Rated, and I talked about it with some coworkers. An older woman and a younger woman who sat next to me in the office. Both of them 100% felt that they’d rather their kid watch a movie where people’s heads got blown off than one where someone got head. I don’t remember their exact argument (this was many years ago), but I’m pretty sure it was such an axiomatic belief for them it was difficult to articulate why.

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12Y

Yeah, America really got fucked up by the puritans. That prudishness still runs deep. I’m philosophically very sex positive, but I get it, and I’m not immune to that shock factor either sometimes. I try my best to disregard it.

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02Y

parents don’t have a role in there too?

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42Y

I’m not sure what you mean. Parents are ideally involved in raising their children, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be involved, good at teaching, teaching anything true, alive, or anything. Public education is important.

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18
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2Y

The women in Twitch use sex and interactive false sexual interest and love to get people to give them money and buy them gifts. In some ways that’s worse for kids than pornhub porn. Do you expect a 15 year old boy to be able to avoid the “stripper really loves me” trap?

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12Y

Then it sounds like your actual problem is with a certain pattern of behavior rather than nudity/sexuality itself. So maybe you address your actual concern rather than something tangentially related.

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20
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2Y

For me it’s how popular and accessible twitch is for kids.

You mean, as opposed to the notoriously unpopular and inaccessible PornHub (among hundreds of others)?

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512Y

If my child is on twitch, I can reasonably assume it’s for game streaming. If my child is on pornhub, I can assume they are watching pornography. I dont like having that line blurred.

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262Y

Yep. It’s a lot easier to block Pornhub than it is to block porn on Twitch but leave the rest of Twitch unaffected.

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72Y

twitch could block mature content behind an account, and only if that account is +18

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62Y

I was thinking more from a parent’s point of view. It’s a lot easier to block a whole website than parts of a website.

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33
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2Y

It’s not the same, how many children are going to pornhub to watch video games and happens to see and click on a recommended stream for actual porn?

Your false dichotomy does not hold up.

snooggums
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432Y

Everything on the internet is easily accessible by kids if the parents aren’t doing any supervision.

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122Y

It’s not the same, porn you have to search out. They’re already on twitch for other reasons and are far more likely to be suggested/shown more vulgar content like “artistic nudity”.

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162Y

If they can google search for twitch, they can google search for porn. They already know. I mean, come on, you were 14 once.

If they cant google search for twitch, then they shouldnt be able to change the channel to boobie streams for the same reason they shouldnt be able to change to any other non-kid-friendly stream. Thats part of being responsible as a parent.

I dunno, this doesnt seem like that big of a deal.

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02Y

i kinda agree, but i seen like youtube kids, where kids that don’t know how to search spend the day there, or not actually, twitch never marked for the same kids that youtube kids has counted for, hmmm, idk

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102Y

This is the double standard I hate so much about violence / porn / swearing.

Kids are watching ultra violent game streams? No one gives a shit.

The second a bad word has been said on a stream or a bit of nudity is shown, people are losing their god damn minds.

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32Y

Short explanation of part of my issue with it:

There’s a big, important difference between watching violence in video games/movies and watching a cartel execution or someone being run over on LiveLeak.

There’s also a significant difference between “a bit of nudity”, even contextually appropriate full frontal, and eroticism.

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-12Y

Kids probably shouldn’t be watching ultra violent games, but that doesn’t mean porn being accessible for minors is not a far more dangerous problem. There is no double standard, because these are two different things. Porn is neurologically addictive. This is an established medical fact. Exposing a minor to more and more sexualized subjects is what groomers do. Interacting with strangers sexually over the internet is not something that should be normalized for children.

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132Y

While porn sites are well protected behind a question. Ultimately it’s up to parents to monitor their kids media consumption.

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62Y

As if I wouldn’t know how to block domains and IPs on my router

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52Y

most parent don’t even know that the router can be configured, how could they block IP

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72Y

Yup, I’m not letting my kids on Twitch because of that.

I hate kiddie accounts, so if I don’t trust my kid to browse a service safely, I ban it. As they gain my trust, I open up the services I allow. For example, I used to have a “no YouTube” rule, now I let my oldest (10yo) to browse on his own, provided he tells me what he wants to watch. If I catch him watching something he knows I don’t approve of, he’ll lose that privilege until he regains that trust.

Twitch will take a while.

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282Y

The problem, at least to me, is the wildly inconsistent application of the rules. Plenty of streamers have gotten bans for inappropriate content for far, far less than this, and been told to shove it when they tried to appeal. I can guarantee you nobody would be up in arms over this if twitch just treated it as a free for all, and didn’t care if people streamed tits. The problem is that it isn’t, and lots of people get banned, while the big thirst streamers get given a free pass on everything

Also, If this goes through, the “banned games” list is going to need some real pruning.

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-12Y

The thing is, teens with accounts set to 18+ do access twitch. And they are going to be diverted there more and more which can draw viewers away from genuine streamers who are just gaming.

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