Back in September, Bloomberg reported multiple instances of child abuse on the streaming platform. Twitch shared a blog post in response detailing its protection measures. That blog post has now been updated with further details on the multiple prevention methods put in place.
“The bad actors who pursue this kind of abuse are often coordinated and intentional in the ways they work to get around both online and real-world safeguards,” reads the post. “These predators are not welcome and will not be tolerated on Twitch, and today we’re sharing an update regarding the continuous work we’re doing to combat them.” Some specificity has been left out to prevent evasion by predators. Twitch is fortifying the ways it keeps children under the age of 13 from creating accounts or content on Twitch. That includes blocking users suspended for being under age, introducing mandatory phone verification requirements to prevent users using false age information, and refining moderation technology used to review user reports. Further measures have been taken to proactively monitor predatory behaviour and trends. Default privacy settings on Whispers (direct messaging) have been updated; certain search terms have been blocked; and Twitch is collaborating with expert organisations to get ahead of grooming trends in the wider industry. Twitch has also completed its acquisition of Spirit AI - language processing technology that will support Twitch in building nuanced classifiers for detecting harmful language. This acquisition in particular will likely be useful for protecting minority communities in addition to the prevention of child grooming. “Our push to stop online predation is an always-on priority and responsibility,” said Twitch. It’s also urging anyone with information to share details with Twitch so predators can be reported to law enforcement.
