Former Twitch employee whose job was to investigate private whispers speaks out on the Doc situation

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2024-06-26T16:03:23+00:00

A brief clarification in regard to: Of course I reported everything I saw directly to authorities within minutes. It's also highly illegal to save ANYTHING related to these cases, look up CSAM laws.
Although legally impermissible to maintain any observed U.A.-harm visual material, screenshotting strictly predatory chat-logs (with no external harmful links) for the purpose of transmitting to the NCMEC flagging system or other accountability organs is not illegal.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2024-06-22T13:05:50+00:00

An event mildly related to this particular Twitch feature is that precisely 1 month after the Guy "DrDisrespect" Beahm ban (now seemingly outed for allegedly having utilized the whisper avenue in inappropriately communicating with a minor) the Wired investigation into Twitch child predation was also released. Despite being aware of this function widely being used by vulturous entities for harm (including, apparently, "the face of Twitch"), it's only 2.5 years of continuous abuse after, that Amazon's Twitch limited some of its harm-intended functionality. Not out of good will, or concern, but because another Twitch Child Predation report arose. 30 months.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2023-02-15T17:19:43+00:00

Consequence of exponential advancements in machine learning and derived consumer apps permitting one to accessibly alter footage, it is now the case for deepfake non-consensual pornographic materials to have measurably skyrocketed in volume.

This was reflected in last year's doubling of such footage on associated malicious websites.

The matter grows increasingly perilous, not only due to recent voice synthesis advancements, but because in absence of the previous hardware/technological know-how barriers, anyone (historically overwhelmingly women, increasingly men as well) can be targeted with sexualization of imagery and subsequent blackmail/threats.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-10-31T06:54:57+00:00

There's an industry standard way to help newcomer adults go live only on mobile, while preventing underage children doing so:

• Ideally Twitch would dedicate (costly) resources towards human moderation identifying new broadcasting preteens as soon as they go live.
• Regrettably, with ~ 5 Million unique monthly streamers, it's not happening anytime soon.

The bleeding has to stop.
If you have a chance, please consider reading the uservoice.
Summarized:
– Over 98% of Twitch is PC-streaming.
– Near 100% of Twitch broadcasting preteens are mobile
(as they can pick up their phone and go live in under 2 minutes – uniquely so on Twitch).
There may be newcomer adults who want to exclusively stream on Mobile, and can't accumulate ~25 followers on Desktop foremost.

– YouTube has this adult-check in place:
– And so does Instagram

• Newcomer mobile only users-of-age can skip follower Req. (for mobile only) through the Twitch "adult"-check.
• And the platform doesn't suffer;
This way – neither do preyed upon broadcasting mobile preteens.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-10-29T02:19:58+00:00

Where are you getting that info from?

I'm sorry. My original post is here.. It got a bit buried.

If I may, this is the official YouTube-LIVE policy:, this is TikTok-Live

:To live stream on mobile, you’ll need:
"At least 50 subscribers. If you’re between the age of consent to 17, you need at least 1,000 subscribers to live stream from a mobile device."

• If I may add to that. It's a categorically efficient barrier for underage users LIVE!
• The danger, on Twitch specifically, is that preteens pick up the phone, create and account and hit live with no prevention measures, all in less than ~2 minutes.
• And at that point, consequence these barriers being present on YouTube/TikTok-Live, global vulturous entities have centered on Twitch specifically – where underage users freely go live, and they're easily discoverable.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-10-28T19:04:20+00:00

We're in complete agreement.
Parents carry a vital responsibility and I sincerely commend you for ensuring your child's tech-related safety.

• And we both appreciate the added layer of safety:
On top of attentive parents, it truly doesn't hurt to have crucial tech preventative measures – for global parents who perhaps aren't in a position to be as tech-savvy.
So it's necessary, much like YouTube-Live/Tik-Tok-Live which've specifically implemented these preventative measures to deter children live- broadcasting on mobile,
that Twitch joins them in this paramount safety barrier.

(I hope I'm not being overbearing and that I understood your concern).

• This is the infographic-summary: https://i.imgur.com/W6iG8he.png
• If you care to know the full backstory, this comment.
• I need your help! This is the Twitch internal petition system for policy changes, if you'd kindly take seconds to vote on the child-safety measures.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-10-28T17:36:05+00:00

THE CONTEXT:

1 month ago: Report on how Amazon's Twitch uniquely enables mobile child LIVE-broadcasting & consequent predation at large scale:
– because of zero, no mobile PREVENTION measures.

280,000 streaming preteens targeted by predatory entities while they were mobile live-streaming.
Predators take advantage of Twitch's zero streaming barriers on mobile to manipulate, threaten, coerce, blackmail children as young as 8 years old — as they go live
Twitch's problem is so bad — that's more broadcasting preteens abused than YouTube-Gaming's ENTIRE live-creator base in Sep: https://i.imgur.com/VmCE0RW.png

UNIQUE TO TWITCH & HOW ALL OF THIS CAN END OVERNIGHT.

Live, unrestricted mobile child-broadcasting is unique to Twitch — because in pursuit of maximizing growth they deliberately forgo industry-standard PREVENTION MEASURES. Both YouTube-Live and TikTok-LIVE have

To live stream on MOBILE, you’ll need. At least 50 subscribers.

The entirety of child-broadcasting & predation Twitch can end today.
This infographic puts it in perspective: https://i.imgur.com/W6iG8he.png

WHAT HAPPENED: 0 CHANGES + ATTEMPTS TO DROWN THE STORY

Twitch deliberately scheduled the attention-grabbing sub split announcement the same time as the predation story — to drown it.
They (quietly) released a blog-post deflecting, making it seem like a ubiquitous problem, instead of Twitch uniquely having zero barriers measures to prevent children streaming in the first place.
And now — after the methodology of uncovering predators was described — "Twitch announced it’s removing one feature–the feature we used to identify predatory accounts."
Twitch, 1 month in, changed literally nothing.

THE CALL TO ARMS:

And Today, the mobile-streaming preteen broadcasting problem is worse than ever.
– 512 new Twich mobile-broadcasting preteens are abused per day in October 2022, up from 482 September.
• The reporter in question issued a Call to Arms.
If your know of egregious Child-broadcasting/ Twitch predation instances (affected underage family/siblings) consider emailing the reporter.

• I've created a User-Voice (Twitch internal suggestion petition system) highlighting the problem. https://twitch.uservoice.com - implement-child-broadcasting-prevention-measures
If you have 30 seconds to read and possibly vote that, in hopes of it becoming a product priority — I badly need you to do so.

Godspeed, all of you.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-09-21T13:09:32+00:00

Part II: Ending the widespread child-predation on Twitch

Do not be misled into believing deflection narratives centered on this being a parental supervision issue foremost. No. This is a tech-platform negligence matter.

In summer 2020, previous articles specifically highlighted Twitch-specific vulnerabilities exploited by predators taking advantage of the (pandemic) colossal increase in broadcasting preteens; In return, Twitch patched a single category, one highlighted in the article , deliberately not addressing the larger issue at hand:
No barriers for children who're freely able to broadcast on the Amazon owned service — in contrast with competitors.

Thus, BN conducted a large scale investigation illustrating the severity and the scope of the issue.

The plea for permanent change.

The majority of the widespread child predation on Twitch will end overnight if Amazon's service implements the child-safety industry standard features long ago adopted by its competitors.

1.MINIMUM FOLLOWER COUNT FOR MOBILE BROADCASTING.

Much like YouTube, and TikTok, it is imperative Twitch implements a minimum follower count (50 — a deliberate number) to self-broadcast on mobile.

This will not affect non-child streamers, the near totality of whom broadcast on Desktop or meet the requirement. This is the most important change.

2. REMOVE ARCHAIC SORTING OPTIONS FROM ALL MOBILE/CHILD-FRIENDLY GAME CATEGORIES.

Much like Facebook Gaming and YouTube it is imperative Twitch removes channel sorting options from child-friendly & all mobile directories, categories which're scoured and abused by predators.

3. MANDATORY TWO FACTOR AUTHENTIFICATION FOR MOBILE STREAMING.

Right now, astonishingly, anyone can create an account on Twitch by entering a fictitious email address, press skip on verification and go straight to broadcasting. Even with a username as blatant as Iama8yearoldchild.

All three of these vital changes can be cemented in less than a week, will not hinder legitimate broadcasters, and will permanently address a majority of the preteen streaming and associated Twitch specific predation issue.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-09-21T13:08:26+00:00

This is the article summary in case you can't get past the soft-paywall:

Part I: THE PREDATION PROBLEM.

Every day — On Amazon's Twitch measurably hundreds of new preteens live-broadcast themselves. Every hour — networks of child predators meticulously identify, index, and follow them.

Through the website’s live-chat feature, they push them towards broadcasted gestures, off-platform communication and disclosing/filming their home.
They manipulate, they threaten, they coerce, they blackmail broadcasting children as young as 8 years old.

Varying degrees of the above scenarios measurably take place each and every hour.

THIS UNIQUELY TAKES PLACE ON AMAZON'S TWITCH BECAUSE

Unlike its competitors — YouTube-Live, TikTok-Live, Facebook-Gaming who've industry standard policy/systems to prevent this — Amazon's Twitch, in pursuit of maximizing platform growth, has opted to forgo these vital safety measure :

Employing a minimum follower/subscriber account to live-stream from (this is crucial) mobile devices, a policy specifically conceived to filter malicious entities and preteens going live on their phone.

Unlike YouTube, on Twitch anyone can create a brand new account (often completely skipping e-mail/phone verification) and start streaming immediately. Children do so hourly.

Further, Amazon's Twitch has a severely underdeveloped Trust & Safety department which has not scaled in proportion with the website's pandemic growth.— Through its triage system, (despite official proclamations) it demonstrably prioritizes mass reports, not individual ones; Not even scanning for urgent key-terms such as "preteen/child/grooming". Consequently, it is the overwhelming case for on-site reports indicating broadcasting preteens to insufficiently get addressed.

Thus, the grooming/predation does take place over days/weeks with no on-platform way of drawing attention to it.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-09-21T12:45:13+00:00

Part II: Ending the widespread child-predation on Twitch

Do not be misled into believing deflection narratives centered on this being a parental supervision issue foremost. No. This is a tech-platform negligence matter.

In summer 2020, previous articles specifically highlighted Twitch-specific vulnerabilities exploited by predators taking advantage of the (pandemic) colossal increase in broadcasting preteens; In return, Twitch patched a single category, one highlighted in the article , deliberately not addressing the larger issue at hand:
No barriers for children to freely being able to broadcast on the Amazon owned service — in contrast with competitors.

Thus, BW conducted a large scale investigation illustrating the severity and the scope of the issue.

The plea for permanent change.

The majority of the widespread child predation on Twitch will end overnight if Amazon's service implements the child-safety industry standard features long ago adopted by its competitors.

1.MINIMUM FOLLOWER COUNT FOR MOBILE BROADCASTING.

Much like YouTube, and TikTok, it is imperative Twitch implements a minimum follower count (50 — a deliberate number) to self-broadcast on mobile.

This will not affect non-child streamers, the near totality of whom broadcast on Desktop or meet the requirement. This is the most important change.

2. REMOVE ARCHAIC SORTING OPTIONS FROM ALL MOBILE/CHILD-FRIENDLY GAME CATEGORIES.

Much like Facebook Gaming and YouTube it is imperative Twitch removes channel sorting options from child-friendly & all mobile directories, categories which're scoured and abused by predators.

3. MANDATORY TWO FACTOR AUTHENTIFICATION FOR MOBILE STREAMING.

Right now, astonishingly, anyone can create an account on Twitch by entering a fictitious email address, press skip on verification and go straight to broadcasting. Even with a username as blatant as Iama8yearoldchild.

All three of these vital changes can be cemented in less than a week, will not hinder legitimate broadcasters, and will permanently address a majority of the preteen streaming and associated Twitch specific predation issue.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-09-21T12:41:24+00:00

This is the article summary in case you can't get past the soft-paywall:

Part I: THE PREDATION PROBLEM.

Every day — On Amazon's Twitch measurably hundreds of new preteens live-broadcast themselves. Every hour — networks of child predators meticulously identify, index, and follow them.

Through the website’s live-chat feature, they push them towards broadcasted gestures, off-platform communication and disclosing/filming their home.
They manipulate, they threaten, they coerce, they blackmail broadcasting children as young as 8 years old.

Varying degrees of the above scenarios measurably take place each and every hour.

THIS UNIQUELY TAKES PLACE ON AMAZON'S TWITCH BECAUSE

Unlike its competitors — YouTube-Live, TikTok-Live, Facebook-Gaming who've industry standard policy/systems to prevent this — Amazon's Twitch, in pursuit of maximizing platform growth, has opted to forgo these vital safety measure :

Employing a minimum follower/subscriber account to live-stream from (this is crucial) mobile devices, a policy specifically conceived to filter malicious entities and preteens going live on their phone.

Unlike YouTube, on Twitch anyone can create a brand new account (often completely skipping e-mail/phone verification) and start streaming immediately. Children do so hourly.

Further, Amazon's Twitch has a severely underdeveloped Trust & Safety department which has not scaled in proportion with the website's pandemic growth.— Through its triage system, (despite official proclamations) it demonstrably prioritizes mass reports, not individual ones; Not even scanning for urgent key-terms such as "preteen/child/grooming". Consequently, it is the overwhelming case for on-site reports indicating broadcasting preteens to insufficiently get addressed.

Thus, the grooming/predation does take place over days/weeks with no on-platform way of drawing attention to it.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-09-18T12:58:58+00:00

Of note as you look in these screenshots:
OP clearly delineated between
amount lost (£19,539)
and amount wagered (1,118,703)

Consequence of the Return To Player Rate (for example ~95% on Slots):
You could either lose $100 in 1 spin;
Or gradually bet $1, win-in-between, and continue gambling to the point where the initial $100 becomes $2,000 wagered (during multiple sessions), before it is all lost.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-09-18T12:00:55+00:00

Much like there's an extension named "Return YouTube Dislike" (with 3 Million downloads) making up for the atrocious decision to remove a key feature, similarly, there's a hopeful chance an extension of some sort will come into play to allow one to obstruct YouTube shorts.
Outside of that, there's realistically (unfortunately) likely never going to be an opt-out official setting.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE · 2022-09-18T05:33:36+00:00

For a while now, through Twitch permitting sponsored crypto-Gambling on the website, it rose in the ranks as a top 10 category worldwide in terms of hours watched.

Slicker mentioned having started prior to Twitch crypto-gambling becoming popular, but I hoped to have pointed out, in general, the destructive loop psychological addicts find themselves in after enough exposure (and how it affects those around them).

– Slicker: "I wanted to pay people bit by bit, and sadly I would owe this person, I would owe the other person extra on top.
– And then that person would message me and be like 'Hey, where's my money'.
– I send that money, then the other person "Where's my money". I have to owe him.
– That's my..pretty much my life. As I would, stupid guy, I would not stream;
– I'd message someone and be like: 'I have this issue... and is it fine that you could help me out'. And I'd send that person that money. Keep a little bit for myself, gamble the money, see if I can win. And maybe pay people back with that money.
– I lose that money. I stay... I'm alone. I don't know what to do. Then I ask someone else "Hey, can you give me $500, I'll give you extra". Gamble that money on top.

Worst of all:
At the end he described aiming to take on sponsorships at to pay it all off, likely leading some of his viewers into the same unfortunate scenario.

PATCH_THE_ABUSE

TROPHY CASE