• Twitch has announced and begun rolling out a new filter that blurs thumbnails for streams that may feature sexual or explicit content.
• The feature is label-based, and will only work if creators label their content accurately.
• It also invites more explicit content to feature on the platform, which has proved divisive in the past.

Twitch has been grappling with explicit content on its platform for a number of years now, as hot tub streams, straight up nudity, and other meta-focused live content has proved more pervasive on the platform.

In a bid to address this, and in particular ensure that users who visit the streaming website are not greeted by thumbnails that are inappropriate, Twitch has rolled out a new explicit content filter that is already being applied.

“Today, we’re rolling out new features that will give you more control over your experience on Twitch. These updates will allow you to customize what appears when you are looking for something to watch or searching for new content. We believe Twitch should be a welcoming place for everyone, and recognize that content enjoyed by some may not be a good fit for others,” the company’s VP of community products, Jeremy Forrester, wrote in a blog post.

“If you’re under the age of 18, content labeled with Sexual Themes; Drugs, Intoxication, or Excessive Tobacco Use; Violent and Graphic Depictions; and Gambling will be filtered out by default… Starting now, you can blur thumbnails for content labeled with a Sexual Themes CCL. Blurring is on by default, and can be toggled on or off in your Content Display Preferences. When the feature is enabled, thumbnails of content labeled with a Sexual Themes CCL will be blurred while browsing categories, viewing recommendations, or searching for content,” he added.

As mentioned this feature is already active, but much of the onus still falls on content creators to correctly label their content. As such, should a stream that would otherwise be considered sexual in nature or feature explicit content, not feature the correct label to ensure the thumbnail for it is blurred or that a warning appears, it will still be viewable to anyone visiting the site.

It will therefore prove interesting to see how effectively Twitch polices this, but Forrester has noted that, “Repeated failure to correctly label your stream will lead to a label being applied to your channel that is unremovable, and the appropriate label will remain on your account for a period of days or weeks, or indefinitely.”

While we’re pleased to see Twitch take the issue of appropriate content for underage viewers seriously, the addition of this new filter feature does still leave the door open to more explicit content creators coming to the platform.

There is not anything wrong with this per se, and Twitch users can spend their viewing time as they wish on the platform, but if a category is flooded with sexual content, it may pull focus away from creators who have chosen not to feature such content on their streams.

As such, it is intriguing to see how the general Twitch community, and long-existing streamers on the platform in particular, will react to this latest filter and how content is moderated on the site.