Bloomberg reports child predators’ use of Twitch to track minors

Twitch is one of the most popular websites on the internet for gaming and live streaming.

The massive and quick spread of the platform has enabled predators to target underaged users. Bloomberg held a comprehensive analysis from October 2020 through August 2022 by a researcher who studies live streaming websites. This researcher found that alleged predators targeted 279,016 children on Twitch. In addition, hundreds of apparent predator accounts each had more than 1,000 kids on their following list. These numbers are undoubtedly chilling.

After Bloomberg’s extensive research, Twitch replied that the problem is similar to many other online platforms and that it has taken steps over the last couple of years to address it.

“Preventing child harm is one of our fundamental responsibilities as a society. We do not allow children under 13 to use Twitch, and preventing our service from being used for harm is one of our biggest priorities,” a Twitch spokesperson wrote. “We know that online platforms can be used to cause harm to children, and we have made extensive investments over the last two years to stay ahead of bad actors better and prevent any users who may be under 13 from accessing Twitch.”

PREDATORS ARE CONSTANTLY SURFACING ONLINE

For the last few years, Twitch has quadrupled the size of its law enforcement response team, working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, known as the NCMEC, and the Tech Coalition, an industry-wide alliance combating online child sex abuse. This way, Twitch tries to verify instances of grooming, and the company’s law enforcement response team reports them to authorities and investigates the groomers’ networks.

This hasn’t been an easy task.

Identifying predatory behavior in real-time is challenging for any technology company, even with state-of-the-art software and the right skills. Remember that Twitch broadcasts over 2.5 million hours of live content daily in 35 languages, relying on user reports and live moderation to shut down inappropriate streams. And even though this can prove helpful at times, there is always the fact that anyone can keep creating accounts anytime.

Twitch and many other companies are fighting against these horrifying activities. Nevertheless, we widely encourage you to read the entire article here. And if you enjoy the platform, like many of us, help end unlawful activities online by reporting them.