Exposure of Kids to Age-Inappropriate Content on Twitch: A Comparative Cross-Country Study

Exposure of Kids to Age-Inappropriate Content on Twitch: A Comparative Cross-Country Study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Exposure of Kids to Age-Inappropriate Content on Twitch: A Comparative Cross-Country Study Kênia C. Gonçalves, Flávio Soriano, Humberto T. Marques-Neto, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6793282/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 11 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Social Network Analysis and Mining → Version 1 posted 13 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The growing presence of children on social media has raised significant concerns regarding their exposure to age-inappropriate content and the potential harms associated with it. While previous research has predominantly focused on platforms like YouTube, limited attention has been given to other widely used platforms among youth. This study addresses this gap by investigating children's exposure to inappropriate content on Twitch—a leading live-streaming platform that blends gaming and social interaction. We employ multiple synthetic user agents (aka personas), representing both underage and adult users from Brazil and the United States, to systematically collect public data via Twitch’s API. Our analysis reveals substantial evidence that underage personas were frequently exposed to inappropriate content, including streams featuring mature-rated games, stream titles containing monetization cues and sexually suggestive emojis, and a high volume of toxic and negative messages in live chats. These findings underscore important weaknesses in current age-protection mechanisms adopted by Twitch and highlight the urgent need for improved safeguards to better protect young users on the platform. Disclaimer: This article includes examples of toxic and potentially distressing content, presented only for the purpose of academic analysis. Readers are advised to proceed with caution. The authors unequivocally disavow the views expressed in such content and include them strictly to support the research objectives. Social media platforms children and adolescents inappropriate content Twitch Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. Authors are currently employed by: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais(UFMG) (@ufmg.br), Instituto Federal de Minas Gerais (IFMG)(@ifmg.edu.br) and Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais(PUC Minas)(@pucminas.br); and have extensively collaborated with Politecnico di Torino(@polito.it), Università di Torino(@unito.it) and Università di Pisa(@unipi.it ) within the past three years. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 11 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Social Network Analysis and Mining → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 23 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 20 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 12 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 16 Jul, 2025 Reviews received at journal 07 Jul, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 11 Jun, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Jun, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 08 Jun, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 03 Jun, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 01 Jun, 2025 First submitted to journal 31 May, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6793282","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":468783711,"identity":"32d35b66-cd62-47c9-b059-ef51fa4703c5","order_by":0,"name":"Kênia C. 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