Following a recent report of almost 2,000 child predators on Twitch, the company has responded to the findings. To say that Twitch is going through challenging times is a gross understatement. Whether it's banning gambling from its platform or dealing with problematic streamers, Twitch is not short of controversies. Though the recent child predation report may be the platform's most troubling development so far.
According to the report, child predators have utilized the Amazon-owned company to identify young streamers, targeting as many as 279,016 children on Twitch between October 2020 and August 2022. This included 1,976 accounts following young streamers, with hundreds of them following at least 1,000 children each. The research deemed the behavior of these accounts to show unusual patterns, indicative of their existence "primarily to catalog, watch and manipulate children."
In response to the findings, Twitch's product chief Tom Verrilli stated, "even one single instance of grooming is abhorrent," and should the data of the report be valid, that the streaming platform Twitch isn't offering the level of protection it's aiming for, calling it "deeply upsetting." Verrilli goes on to mention that the platform currently doesn't allow users under 13, and it actively looks to prevent Twitch from being used to cause harm to children. Verrilli also mentions that Twitch "made extensive investments over the last two years to better stay ahead of bad actors" with the aim of preventing "any users who may be under 13 from accessing Twitch."
Additionally, the report indicates that since the beginning of its research in 2020, Twitch's law enforcement response team had quadrupled, where it works with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Tech Coalition, an industry-wide alliance actively fighting online child sex abuse. Following a verified instance of grooming on the platform, the law enforcement response team would typically report to the authorities and investigate the groomers' own networks. However, the child predation report suggests that Twitch's existing moderation tools and processes may not be nearly enough.
The company has also stated there are "numerous additional updates in development" with the aim of detecting and removing child streamers as well as predators from the platform. Although Twitch is yet to share details on any of these updates, claiming bad actors could use it to their advantage. Regardless, it remains to be seen how the platform will address the report with any specific course of action. The hope is that any measure taken will be sufficient to mitigate the child predator issue in its entirety, especially considering how Twitch is already embattled in a plethora of controversies.
Source: Bloomberg