Here's How Twitch's New Parental Controls Work
There is growing discussion about the safety of younger users on livestreaming and social media platforms, with some countries even restricting usage for minors. Twitch has just announced that it has launched optional parental controls, allowing parents to limit their children’s activity on the platform.
A move towards parental controls is not a surprise given the global push in recent months towards tighter regulation around social media platforms and age verification. Twitch has just announced its changes with a post on X, as the screenshot below shows.
Twitch’s X post.
Twitch gives parents control over teen accounts
This new feature is straightforward, as it allows parents to connect their accounts to those of their teenagers and manage their activities on Twitch. The tools include restricting livestreaming, disabling private messages, blocking content categories, setting time limits, and monitoring activities through weekly summaries.
Image credit: Twitch
These changes stem from several concerns raised by the community regarding the experience of younger audiences on the platforms. With these tools, parents will be able to stop strangers from contacting their children, restrict exposure to sensitive content, and also ensure the accounts can only be used for watching streams.
The response to the X post has been mainly positive, with many users welcoming the move and stating that it will give parents peace of mind, as they will know their children aren’t watching anything unsuitable and are better protected. However, whether these tools will be fully successful remains to be seen, due to the unpredictable nature of livestreams. A blanket restriction may help in most cases, but it’s challenging to moderate a situation that unfolds in real-time.
Image credit: Twitch
It’s also true that several of Twitch’s popular streamers started young with gaming music and other content. Parental controls could affect that, with stricter moderation on teenagers potentially becoming a hindrance for up-and-coming creators. Twitch has stated parental controls are optional, can easily be enabled or disabled from Family Center, and accounts are unlinked automatically once the user turns 18-years-old.
Editor’s view: Twitch’s parental controls could affect other platforms
Twitch may be offering parents a way to track and manage their teenagers’ experience on the platform, but this new feature could have several consequences. Chief among them may be other livestreaming platforms following suit with their own parental controls, despite there being no legal obligations to introduce such a feature. Other platforms may also not include an option to turn it off, with parental controls being enabled automatically for teenagers.
There have been talks in the UK about banning children under 16 from using major social media platforms. This could potentially affect Facebook, X, Twitch, Kick, and other social platforms. France is also leaning towards a similar outlook, with talks about banning under-15s from social media, which highlights that this isn’t limited to a single country, and Europe could become the first region to launch such a restriction. If these talks turn into legal bills, age verification will become stricter, and Twitch may have launched the new feature to get a head start and allow parents to feel their children are protected.
From what has been announced, few will argue that this is a positive move from Twitch, with the headline elements seemingly making the platform a safer place for teenagers. It is then a case of how popular the uptake this well be, given it is currently optional.
Twitch’s parental controls, though, seem to be just the beginning and it is highly probable that these changes will be more widely implemented throughout the industry in the coming years — perhaps even by legal means as governments respond to parents’ concerns.
Feature image credit: Twitch
Khizar Mundia has been playing video games for as long as he can recall. Things have come a long way since the many days he spent playing the original NES, though. He now covers a variety of competitive games and esports, as well as the world of streaming, ranging from Twitch to Kick. If it’s of interest to gamers, it’s of interest to Khizar.
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