Last weekend, a girl held up her mobile phone and hit the Go Live button on Twitch’s mobile app. Her stream appeared under Twitch’s Simply Chatting area, where people livestream themselves speaking with their audiences. She discusses that she’s about to do her morning regimen. Within minutes, 11 audiences filed in, including her best friend and numerous complete strangers. One viewer asks her age. They stick around after she states she’s10
As she gets out her tooth brush, one anonymous audience asks in an adjoining chat window whether she has WhatsApp and states she is charming. Another informs her that she is gorgeous. Her good friend types into chat, “Bro I do not like this at all” and logs off. Later on in the stream, the lady notes that a good friend of hers got 15 followers in an hour and, comparing her own fan count, asks whether she’s ugly or strange. (The channel was active and had 15 fans till yesterday.)
According to Twitch’s Terms of Service, you have to be 13 to stream on the platform. A WIRED investigation turned up lots of Twitch accounts apparently operated by children under that age, consisting of another girl who confessed to being11 In their videos, which turn up every couple of minutes under Twitch’s Simply Talking section, evident kids livestream themselves talking while playing video games like Fortnite, performing dances popular on TikTok, or sitting in the house and interacting with a small number of audiences. WIRED has seen numerous messages from audiences to these evident children containing inappropriate comments, concerns, or demands, and determined some accounts that follow multiple evident kids.
” Both our desktop and mobile apps prevent users from creating accounts if they enter a date of birth that indicates they are under 13,” a Twitch spokesperson informed WIRED. Twitch pointed to its reporting system as a method to combat unsuitable behavior toward kids, adding that individuals reporting streamers who appear
