Assessment of: Twitch UK Limited
Completion date: 31 March 2024
Summary: In January 2024, Ofcom entered into a period of compliance remediation with Twitch UK Limited (“Twitch”), an open-access VSP platform, following concerns that it may not have sufficient measures in place to protect under 18s from videos containing Restricted Material (as defined under the VSP regime).
During this period, following close engagement with the platform, Twitch UK Limited has made some important changes to protect under 18s from videos containing Restricted Material.
Relevant legal provisions: Part 4B of the Communications Act 2003
Background
Children’s safety online has been one of Ofcom’s top priorities since November 2020 when it was appointed as the UK’s regulator of established video sharing platforms (VSPs) under Part 4B of the Communications Act 2003 (the ‘Act’). Under the VSP regime, VSP providers are required to ensure they take appropriate measures to protect under 18s from videos containing Restricted Material and that the implementation of those measures is effective. Restricted Material is defined to include adult content and other video material which might impair the physical, mental or moral development of under 18s.
In January 2024, Ofcom’s Enforcement team raised concerns with Twitch that it may not have sufficient measures in place to protect under 18s from videos containing Restricted Material. In lieu of formal enforcement action, Ofcom entered into a period of close engagement with Twitch under our compliance remediation process. Ofcom’s compliance remediation process allowed Twitch to address our concerns around its measures in protecting children online and Ofcom to monitor its progress within a specified timeframe.
Our concerns
Our assessment raised concerns about whether Twitch had taken appropriate steps to protect under-18s from videos containing Restricted Material on its platform.
Specifically, we were concerned about whether:
- Twitch had taken such of the measures in Schedule 15A of the Act as are appropriate for the purpose of protecting persons under the age of 18 from videos containing restricted material; and/or
- any such measures it had taken were being implemented in such a way as to carry out that purpose.
Changes to Twitch following completion of compliance remediation period
In response to our concerns, Twitch has made significant changes to the content displayed on its homepage, and taken steps to prevent access to content with sexual themes and gambling. The changes made include:
- restricting access to logged-in viewers in the UK declared as under the age of 18 from accessing videos containing content with a Content Classification Label (CCL) applied for Sexual Themes and Gambling.
- restricting access to logged-out viewers in the UK (age therefore unknown) from accessing videos containing content with a Content Classification Label (CCL) applied for Sexual themes and Gambling.
- the removal of content tagged as containing content relating Sexual themes, Gambling; Drugs, Intoxication, or Excessive Tobacco Use; and Violent and Graphic Depictions from the Twitch homepage for both logged-out and logged-in viewers in the UK, regardless of age.
- a new section to its Guide for Parents and Educators about CCLs aiming to educate adults such that they can make informed decisions about the types of content children can watch on Twitch.
Content Classification Labels (CCLs) are ‘tags’ that streamers, on Twitch, must apply to their content to indicate to viewers if the stream they’re about to watch contains themes related to: Mature-Rated Games; Sexual Themes; Drugs, Intoxication, or Excessive Tobacco Use; Violent and Graphic Depictions; Significant Profanity or Vulgarity; or Gambling.
Our response
Considering the steps taken by Twitch to improve its access control to videos that may contain Restricted Material in response to our concerns, we have decided not to open a formal investigation into Twitch’s compliance with its duties under Part 4B of the Communications Act 2003 at this time.
We have encouraged Twitch to consider extending the restrictions it has applied to content with CCLs relating to Sexual Themes and Gambling to other types of content which could contain Restricted Material such as content with CCLs relating to Drugs, Intoxication, or Excessive Tobacco Use; and Violent and Graphic Depictions. Content with such attached CCLs may fall within scope of the definition of Restricted Material; however, we have not conducted a full assessment or investigation into this. As explained under the VSP guidance, VSPs such as Twitch may choose the most appropriate measures to monitor and flag any potential Restricted Material on its platform.
We will continue to monitor Twitch’s platform to assess whether it is complying with its obligations under Part 4B of the Act, as part of our ongoing supervision of regulated services. We have urged Twitch to engage with Ofcom’s Supervision team and to continue to ensure children are appropriately protected ahead of the new Online Safety regime coming fully into force.
Footnotes:
- Compliance remediation is an informal enforcement process where we have agreed improvement plans with a platform in lieu of opening a formal investigation. We have set out further detail and examples on page 10 of our recent VSP Strategy Refresh Report (PDF, 473.4 KB).
- Twitch explanation of Content Classification Labels and how they are applied.