More than that, they are also restricted from creating an account. Moderators can block your streaming channel if they suspect you are younger than the minimum required age.
There are several main reasons for such a strict rule. First of all, Twitch is full of various content that is not suitable for such an age. Most of the games that are streamed on Twitch have 16+ age restrictions, and streamers do not hesitate to use profanity. It is impossible to pre-moderate events that happen during live streams, and even if streamers are holding children-friendly events, there is always a live chat that can have dozens of inappropriate messages to be posted in a matter of seconds.
Some streamers are also not happy about having children among their viewers. They try to ban users under the age of 18 from their Discord servers. If a young audience tries to interact with streamers, they tend to ignore such tries.
Why exactly do you have to be 13 to use Twitch?
According to statistics, up to 50% of twitch. tv users are aged between 16 and 24. Streaming is popular among young audiences. However, most of the content that is broadcasted on this platform is related to topics that are not suitable for children. It is extremely difficult to protect the underage audience from potential harm that can be done by such topics as:
- Adult language — is the biggest problem of the platform. Even though Twitch tries to fight toxicity, insults, and trolling, it is almost impossible to get rid of it forever. Even special chatbots and spam lists are not powerful enough to stop people’s skills in creating new slurs. And of course, such language is inappropriate for children.
- Violence in games — as most of the games on the market treat violence irresponsibly, it is now considered normal to see various forms of cruelty on the screen. Even though all of those in-game violent scenes are fictional and Twitch quickly bans any streams that show real-life footage of violent action, young children’s minds are not always able to critically relate to what they observe.
- Drug and alcohol — some streamers can freely discuss their experience with drugs and alcohol with chat, others can even drink alcohol during streams. Needless to say that children under 13 are not ready for such mature topics.
