Keep the Maturity Tag *AND* have Content Classification
I think the new content classification feature is an incredibly useful tool to have. Allowing creators to specify their content and giving an audience the ability to know that a stream may have something that is not for them is great!
As a streamer who is SFW and doesn't have any content that would fall under these classifications, though, the loss of the maturity tag means that I am losing a valuable feature to keep my community safe.
Why I don't want children in my space despite being completely SFW:
It is a LOT of work to keep children safe when you are allowing them in your community. They are inherently vulnerable. Not every content creator is equipped or prepared to take on that burden. Allowing children into your space means that your moderation has to be VERY strict to protect them. Their brains are still developing and you have no idea what passing comment could stick with them forever. Not to mention that regardless of how well you try to curate your community, anyone can watch whisper children privately. It is not something every content creator is prepared to take on. Children are considerably more likely to form unhealthy parasocial attachments to you and not recognize your and this can make enforcing healthy, distant relationships considerably harder. Many streamers are not equipped to take on this burden and used the blanket moderation tool as a way to enforce this boundary.
Why having the blanket "mature" tag in addition to the content classification labels is the safest option for many spaces:
I sat in on the Patch Notes today and brought this up. The staff that was there offered a somewhat helpful alternative after clarifying that they are not considering both of these options together. This suggestion was:
Use the freeform tags as a way to let people know your content isn't for kids.
While this is helpful in a small way, many people completely miss these tags. Sure, kids may ignore all the messages anyway, but a parent monitoring their kid's watching habits and helping to determine which streams are safe for them may very well not notice a tag-- they WILL, however, notice a message on the screen letting them know that I have set the boundary with my community that it is intended for non-minors (Mature content warning). Removing this ability makes it considerably easier to violate this boundary on accident.
I know MANY streamers who do not have the bandwidth to dedicate extra resources into moderating with children in mind, communicating with them in a way that doesn't impact them harmfully long term, and doing the extra steps to do what they can to help protect them from predators. In these cases, the blanket maturity tag allows us to easily and clearly set the boundary without risking it go unnoticed by parent OR child.
How I would suggest implementing this:
Just have both. The blanket maturity tag wouldn't absolve people of having to specify the kinds of mature content under the new standards for classification. It would just also allow those of us doing our best to keep communities safe by gently keeping children out a much easier time to enforce these boundaries.
I'm also happy to speak to anybody further about why this is so important to me, or to connect you with other partnered/affiliated streamers who feel the same.
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Kirball commented
Herein lies the problem. We don't want every mature topic to constantly be lumped into ***********. Mandate a sexually explicit warning on top of a mature warning or stop this ******** softcore ****. No one that is here for gaming wants it except the profiteers and scumbags involved. As more high profile streamers involved in deep fake ransomware **** are uncovered I hope this trend is stopped before it continues the spiral twitch began.
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Candy_Dagger commented
I agree (peepoClap)
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mattiratti commented
Yes, yes please. Also, some of us just don't like kids, or dealing with them. Like, let us keep this tool also please. I'm not generally NSFW I'd say, but well, I don't like kids much, I don't really want to deal with everything that comes with them possibly being in chat, and some subject matter may come up that I don't think would be something I'd discuss in front of them as sometimes a less sfw subject may come up. Just give us the first to have on as a blanket, hey you shouldn't be here, and let the others be a fine tuning of more specific reasons if they apply.
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Krissy_Tee commented
I'm trying to get on a stream team that is family friendly and I do not see the Maturity content toggle where it use to be. With it being nonexistence, it has brought me to the point of tears and stressing out. PLEASE BRING THE MATURITY CONTENT TOGGLE BACK!!
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Akantia commented
Absolutely agree. I just don't want children in my space because lots of them just do not comprehend boundaries and often say things I personally consider to be very annoying. And I know many members of my community aren't exactly fans of children either
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Megu_Muu commented
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I would not class myself as an NSFW content creator overall but as a 36 year old woman, I just feel like a lot of the things I talk about, while not explicitly NSFW are still things I wouldn't be comfortable talking about around children.
For example I often talk about my mental and physical health in a very unfiltered way, which is a good release for me and my community to be able to vent about it, but it can be quite dark the way I talk about it, I also use dark humour as a coping mechanism and I just don't think kids should be hearing that kind of thing, even though it's not NSFW.
I also rant about children fairly often too, as a woman of childbearing age in a straight presenting relationship I have endured endless pressure into having children, I know I am not maternal, nor am I mentally capable of looking after a dependent child but women aren't allowed to use our bodies as we please and we have to suffer the criticism from those who object to our decision to live child free. This has given me an even greater distaste towards children and again I don't think they should be subjected to hearing me talk about things like that.
This is just 2 examples but there are many more like it. Please let channels be mature without being NSFW, for everyone's benefit.
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P2isonline commented
Absolutely agree! There should be a space for creators who are not adult-oriented but still do not want children in their spaces.
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NergalTheGoblin commented
Wholeheartedly agree
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illiath_The_Fae commented
I too, agree with this feature being removed as a problem. I am SFW, but not safe-for-children for a number of US states, and in fact it's illegal in some US states to discuss some of the topics I like to discuss with my audience (I mean, sure, the 1st amendment says otherwise, but I don't want to be dragged into a supreme court case with our current court trying to defend why I was talking about queer (LGBTIQ+) content around children). There are even entire countries where acknowledging that someone is gay around children is a felony.
So, I used the mature content setting as a defense for myself and my community, to allow us to discuss such topics while I play games that INCLUDE these themes (or just because we're bored, hey, having safe spaces for mature discussions of these issues does bring in the viewers sometimes).
The problem with moving it into "tags" and not an actual setting is obvious, minors can just ignore the tag, or not even notice it, or actively seek it out. I hadn't even realized they'd disabled that as a block until reading this... now I'm going to have to take up valuable screen real-estate on my stream with a "don't freaking watch this stream if you're a minor", as a way, to (hopefully) defend myself from such things!
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BayouBuckleBunny commented
I have worked in child protective services and other child mental health services before. I am an adult who does not always play adult themed games, but does talk about adult themes that I am not comfortable sharing a space with in regards to minors. I should not have to have a specific reason for not wanting to include children in my space. I should not have to have a reason to protect minors against things that they are not ready to hear or watch yet. Please stop restricting adults abilities to protect children during a time where children are incredibly susceptible to being groomed online. There are many people who want to protect children and you are not allowing them the chance to do that with this new feature.
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Loumona7 commented
I can't believe I have to retype my whole comment because it prompted me to sign in. So here we go, again. Thank you Twitch.
We need and deserve both. It's accessibility. Give us the choice please.
Help protect streamers (without them you don't even exist), help protect audiences and childrens.
Why adding features means removing others ?
It seems like the logical, easy thing to do.
Listen to streamers opinions, we shouldn't have to be so many basically begging for some features that existed before, keep both the new and old ones please.
Please. Thank you. -
Coleyne commented
I agree with this recommendation. I moderate for many streams, some are completely family friendly and would not require any tags, but there are communities that are 18+ without swinging so far that they require the new classifications. A generic 18+ audience gate coming into the stream would at least ensure that the viewer acknowledges this and somewhat protects the streamers. Currently it seems the only way to handle this is thru Tags and really not a gate coming into the streams.
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SkiesCanFall commented
As a moderator for a streamer that is curated to an 18+ audience without being explicit but would prefer not to have children in their streams or community, everything Spri has laid out above is sensible and rational and is more than enough reason to consider a blanket maturity tag.
This shouldn't be a large ask. Just because a community is not curated for explicit content, does not mean that it is appropriate for children to be part of that space. Many streamers do not feel equipped to take on the burden of having younger viewers in their spaces and it can be extra work for mods as well. Please actually listen to your users in this case. This system clearly needs to be better fleshed out than it has been at launch.
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KokoPimento commented
I completely agree with everything Spri has said. Despite not playing mature games or speaking on sexual themes, I am a very vulgar individual and should not be around children, ever.
I have been using the "excessive profanity" tag, but I recently had a stream that I knew was unnecessary to have it on for. That stream had new chatters mentioning how young they were. My community has been curated to a more mature audience that will dip into themes that children should not be present for. It takes time, resources, and unnecessary trouble from myself or my mod to remove immature and young people from my community.
I agree with what others have spoken as well. "This channel is intended for a mature audience: viewer discretion is advised" is a great flag to consider adding for a blanket "mature content" flag. I really hope twitch staff considers this!
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spatsula commented
Everything Spri has said here is exactly what I need for my own streams. Please listen to your users, as I also don’t think this is too much of an ask.
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nateycakes commented
I too use the blanket "mature content" flag to keep kids out of my broadcasts. It's been the #1 deterrent for me and has made moderating easier for me and my team.
Something like "this channel is intended for a mature audience: viewer discretion is advised" like they do on Adult Swim would be so incredibly useful because, like SemiSpri said, I don't have the bandwidth to adjust my content on the fly because there's a 14-year-old in chat who doesn't know what we are talking about and is announcing that to the entire audience.
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TXPaladinTTV commented
Please add something that is more generic along the lines of "18+ Adult Topics discussed at times" as an option. My Channel is set for 18+ an I guess I have to pick something now. The other day my stream went black saying I had not picked and I had to stop an restart the stream. The game I was playing was not M rated, so I have to pick the lesser of all the evils and that is pretty much Profanity, but I'm not someone that goes around cussing like a sailor. So, it would be nice to have something to say, I want adults here and we might talk about topics more for an adult. I also like the idea as an Adult, having an option that says I'm fine with any of the settings, cause I'm over 18, sort of like Twith Plus for no Ads, but Twitch Adults ;)
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LomariFairchild commented
100% Agree. I play and stream mostly SFW content, but I don't want children in my space.
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Glottal commented
Agreed with all of the above. The new system actively hinders streamers ability to be responsible and keep children safe, which was the primary strength of the previous Mature tag. Combining the two systems allows users and streamers to curate their space to ensure it is safe and comfortable for everyone
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phyllipa commented
Specific labels are great but the blanket 18+ is helpful if you just don't want to take on the responsibility of children in your space