Parents and Twitch: How to help children use the platform safely and responsibly

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If your kids enjoy watching live streams on Twitch, it’s natural to feel concerned. Despite being reputed as one of the strictest platforms in terms of permissible content, questionable material has occasionally managed to slip through the cracks. If you’re looking for Twitch parental controls, you may be disappointed as there is no such feature on the platform. This doesn’t mean you can’t protect your child from inappropriate content, you just need to do things differently. Let’s explore ways to safeguard your children from inappropriate content and mitigate other risks associated with using Twitch.

Twitch Family Guide

#1 Watch With Children

To determine if a specific channel is suitable for your child, watch the stream for 15 to 20 minutes on different occasions. Tune in at various times throughout the week, including weekdays and weekends, to assess the chat and atmosphere of the stream’s appropriateness for your child.

To view the chat room participants, click the Viewer List icon located at the bottom of the chat window. The channel’s moderators will be displayed, and you can easily contact them if someone behaves inappropriately. Alternatively, you can hide the chat area by accessing the gear icon and selecting “Hide Chat.”

Twitch has comprehensive and explicit community guidelines. If you believe a channel has violated these guidelines, you can report it anytime by clicking the gear icon below the video player and selecting “Report.”

#2 Learn to Manage Money

Your teenager, if they are a regular viewer of Twitch, will likely feel the urge to donate money or “subscribe” to their favourite streamer at some point.

As a parent, it becomes your responsibility to assess what suits your family and budget the best. If you permit your teenager to subscribe to a channel, keep in mind that you will incur monthly charges unless you cancel the subscription on Twitch. Regularly monitor your teenager’s Twitch activity to manage their subscriptions effectively.

If your teenager has access to their own funds, engage in a conversation with them about making wise choices. Prominent streamers often possess more wealth than they can handle. Smaller streams may depend on donations to sustain themselves, but that does not imply the burden of responsibility on your child.

#3 Cybersecurity for Stream Savvy Kids

Twitch is protected by various filters and security algorithms, so most hackers and scammers are not targeting the service, but people. If a child clicks on a phishing link, they may lose their Twitch account and more. If you want to improve your privacy and resilience to cyber risks, you should use a VPN for Twitch. If you install Twitch privacy VPN, you can protect yourself from surveillance, data leaks, and personal hacking attacks. VeePN has everything you need to protect your child. Of course, VPN does not replace the need to teach your child basic Internet safety rules.

#4 Setting Time and Content Limits

Engage in a conversation with your teenager regarding the Twitch streamers they follow. While Twitch strictly prohibits nudity and extreme violence, there exists a significant amount of content on the questionable platform. Notably, there is a specific category dedicated to streams featuring hot tubs.

Streamer channels that prioritize integrity always clearly indicate if their content falls within the mature category. Additionally, Twitch notifies viewers about streamers considered mature before watching their streams. However, there may be instances where undesirable content is present. Here are some recommended steps you can take:

You can talk to your child and discuss time limits and content restrictions. If you explain why your child should not watch a particular broadcast, and also talk about time restrictions, he will hear you. This applies not only to Twitch, but VeePN can be useful almost everywhere: in training, traveling, routine surfing, etc. It encrypts data and replaces IP, which makes the device untraceable. Plus, VPN allows you to bypass regional restrictions on content.

#5 Set Age Restrictions

Twitch lacks the typical parental controls found in video game consoles and other devices. However, there are some built-in measures to help manage your kids’ exposure. Children aged 13 or older can create an account under parental supervision.

It’s worth noting that Twitch streams can be viewed without an account. While you can’t participate in chat without logging in, you can still see the chat, including potentially mature content. However, with an account, users can disable direct messaging, and block or report inappropriate behavior.

As stated in Twitch’s Terms of Service, children aged 13 or older can create an account with parental supervision. If a child under 13 creates an account, parents can request its deletion by emailing the site. Relevant information must be provided to confirm that your child has violated the terms of service.

Conclusion

Twitch is a huge streaming service for the exchange of information, specializing in the gaming field, and, normally, a child is interested in it. Yes, there are no parental controls, but there is an alternative. You should work more with your child rather than limit viewing with technology. Honestly, this approach might be even better.