Twitch will let parents stop their teens going live

Twitch is giving parents more control over how their children are using the streaming platform, including the ability to block them from broadcasting entirely. Parental controls are now available that allow guardians to link Twitch accounts with their 13- to 17-year-old children, providing account management features and a weekly email summarizing their teen’s activity, including channels and hours watched.

The controls can be used to prevent teens from livestreaming their own content and disabling Whispers, Twitch’s private messaging feature. This includes blocking minors from sending or receiving DMs. Parents can also set flexible daily time limits for Twitch across all their teen’s devices and restrict content that carries certain classification labels — such as Gambling, Mature-Rated Game, Sexual Themes, and more — from appearing in searches or recommended feeds.

The parental controls dashboard can be found in the Account Settings under the Family Center page. When a Twitch user managed by parental controls turns 18, their account will be automatically unlinked from their parents. Twitch says that it will explore adding additional parental control features in the future, noting that the setting is optional “at this time.”