Stream Etiquette Pt 9: Age Discussion

This one is a pretty touchy realm to delve in so bear with me.

Before you enter a mature rated chat, you'll likely get a warning stating it's age level.

Mixer as an example had family friendly, teen, and mature rated chats while Twitch (among other streaming sites I assume) have toggles to state a stream simply as for mature audiences.

We're looking at this at the level that my channel on Mixer was in steadfast nature, which was mature rated thus an 18+ channel given me and my friends used profanity, played mature rated games, spoke in raunchy innuendos, etc.

Each site I've been on? I've kept a mature rating, and if you enter such a channel and discuss your age? It can cause multiple issues obviously.

If anything? A general rule of thumb is to not discuss your age, regardless of channel rating.

I have a rule for age to not be mentioned by viewers period to protect them aside from myself, so while we as streamers can't stop someone underage from being in our chat unless they mention how old they claim they are (and even then, we can't force them off the channel and only ban them, though Twitch changed things to where a ban instantly kicks someone), the least I myself try to do is protect them from possible child predators (because you never know who someone is online, hence me saying 'claiming' how old they are).

At the time of this guide revamp there was recently a large outpour of streamers coming out on being sexually assaulted. If that could happen then so could predators going after kids.

There have been multiple instances where someone in my stream stated that they were underage, some even under Mixer's TOS age requirement of 13 years of age with me delivering bans and channel reports respectively.

If there was a way to truly age gate people to where I could've completely barred underage users from entering my chat at all? I would've, but at the same time I refused to change my channel rating to teen because I wasn't going to censor myself.

Fact is, to the young viewers out there, or those pretending to be younger than you really are?

You're not doing anyone any favors by going into a mature rated chat and stating that you are underage.

It doesn't make you look cool as much as you may think especially if you say 'too bad' when the streamer tells you no discussing age before they ban you (again, as I had one particular viewer do).

And you won't be exempt from being banned so the three choices you have are to listen to that warning stating to not enter unless you meet the right age group and go check out family friendly or teen rated streams, keep your age to yourself, or mention your age and get banned and possibly have your channel reported.

Aside from doing such to protect you, the streamer is protecting themselves because if they allow someone underage to hang around and talk on their chat it'll put them at risk of getting in trouble. More so if the viewer says they are not only younger than the rating of the chat is for, but also younger than the minimum age to have an account on the site.

In all, keep your age to yourself. but also remember that the mature label on a chat is there for a reason.