Twitch is introducing new features that can be used to restrict several features from accounts, including blocking streams and messages.
A new suite of Twitch features gives parents the power to restrict certain features, ranging from blocking certain streams to disabling DMs. The Twitch change follows a broader trend in the gaming industry focused on protecting children.
The massively popular Amazon-owned streaming platform gives fans a wide variety of ways to watch their favorite streamers. Twitch’s content library has expanded far beyond its gaming origins, with many streamers using the IRL category to share parts of their personal lives with fans. The platform also allows creators to save their recordings as video-on-demand content on Twitch, with viewers able to go back and watch older broadcasts and clip highlights after a livestream is over. Now, Twitch is making some major changes to help parents protect their children when using the platform.
Twitch is Adding New Parental Controls
A set of new parental controls coming to Twitch provides several tools for limiting what content teenagers aged 13–17 can access. One of the biggest changes in the update concerns what content children can view on Twitch, allowing parents to restrict their child’s access to content with certain Content Classification Labels. Parents will be able to block their children from sending or receiving direct messages on the platform as a new feature being added to Twitch. The new changes will even allow parents to prevent their children from livestreaming, alongside setting daily time limits to manage the time their children spend on Twitch.
Twitch shared some important details about the parental controls in its announcement post. The parental controls are optional at launch and do not strictly require accounts for younger users to be managed by their parents. Twitch will not institute any limits on how often parents can change the settings for their child, though parents will be required to make their own Twitch account. The official post also confirms what will happen to its parental controls after the child turns 18, with the parental account automatically being unlinked on their 18th birthday. The changes join a broader push towards parental controls and age verification across the online space, both with games like League of Legends and platforms like Discord.
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