The Brazilian streamer, called Lucas, has managed to reach Radiant level in the game, its highest rank. However, Twitch has banned Lucas for being underage - the minimum age to use the platform is 13. Watch on YouTube Eurogamer Newscast: Why is Sony worried about Call of Duty on PlayStation 6? Lucas has been streaming Valorant with supervision from his parents and has clearly displayed talent. His parents were unaware of Twitch’s age guidelines, which clearly states: “If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access the Twitch services at any time or in any manner.” Streamer and esports journalist Jake Lucky tweeted Lucas’s story. “He has been banned on Twitch for his age, although he streams with parental supervision. Much of the community has jumped to his defence, while others argue Twitch’s ban is fair,” said Lucky. He added that the child’s parents were ignorant of Twitch’s rules as they were previously banned and unbanned “without much detail”, and then streamed for another four months with parental supervision before this new ban.
The story has split the streaming community. Is it ok for a child to stream with parental supervision, or should Twitch uphold its strict policy of no under 13s on the platform? Just recently, Twitch updated its measures against child abuse following reports of child grooming on the platform. That includes preventing under 13s from creating accounts. It should also be noted that Valorant itself is a PEGI 16 game and shouldn’t be played by children at all, let alone streamed. What do you think? Is parental supervision enough to protect children online? Or is Twitch right to ban?
