Are People Really Streaming Sex on Twitch? Here's How to Get Involved

Twitch is one of the most popular live streaming platforms on the web. Originally designed for gaming videos and live broadcasts of eSports competitions, there are now millions of creators with content ranging from video games to lifestyle vlogs.

Although Twitch has some pretty clear-cut community guidelines prohibiting sexually explicit material, the internet is full of people who are desperate for adult content, and equally full of people looking to provide it.

So, are there actually any channels on Twitch where you can view live streamed sex? We explored the history of explicit material on Twitch to give you the lowdown on Twitch sex streaming.

The short answer: no

Twitch has a strong history of taking disciplinary action against people whose streams include sexually explicit material.

Twitch streamers like xpegasas, who left his microphone on after his show and was heard having sex, and Etole11, who received oral sex on camera, have received permanent bans from the platform.

One user, most recently under the username forsaaaanpepegga, decided to put Twitch to the test and see how long they could get away with live streaming hardcore porn on their channel. At the bottom of the stream was a counter marking how many times they had been banned from Twitch (over four hundred).

Even if the content is accidental, like Lucia_omnomnom's chest being revealed after a technical malfunction kept her stream going longer than it should have, Twitch doesn't mess around. Lucia received a three-day suspension--fairly lenient compared to a permanent ban, but still harsh for a mistake.

While Twitch doesn't publically comment on violations of community guidelines for privacy reasons, it's clear that they take their rules very seriously when it comes to live streaming sexual content.

Do Twitch's rules go too far?

Some people have questioned whether Twitch's rules, which do include a clause allowing exceptions for "educational and artistic contexts," have come down too hard on artists and others who include nonsexual nudity as part of their streams.

For instance, AriaNina streamed a body painting video that resulted in a permanent ban on her channel. She argued that the nudity was artistic, but her channel wasn't reinstated.

Twitch allows body painting so long as the content doesn't violate the site policies, which specify that nipples, genitals, and buttocks (regardless of gender) may not be exposed.

There are streamers who engage in body painting while covering their nipples with pasties. It's not clear in AriaNina's video whether her nipples are covered with anything other than paint.

If they were, then it isn't clear why her channel was banned and other channels are acceptable.

One popular theory is that Twitch is more lenient toward its higher-performing channels, letting the streamers who bring in more revenue for the platform get away with some conduct that would get smaller creators perma-banned.

While Twitch hasn't officially commented on this theory (for obvious reasons), it would explain why content producers who are less well-known (and thus less profitable) tend to earn more harsh discipline than Twitch's hot-ticket streamers.

Some people have also claimed that Twitch's standard of what constitutes sexual versus nonsexual nudity punish individuals with more conventionally attractive body types.

One argument as to why AriaNina's channel was banned included the fact that she has large breasts that, unrestrained by a bra, moved around "provocatively" while she prepared her skin for painting.

This argument was made by a user, not the platform itself, but it offers another explanation why AriaNina's artistic nudity might have been considered sexual, even though she didn't do anything sexual onscreen.

Vigilantes

On the flip side, there are some who think that Twitch doesn't do enough to crack down on cam girls and other performers who use suggestive content to attract viewers.

These people patrol women's channels in the IRL section of Twitch, looking for any creators whose work toes (or crosses) the line of being inappropriate.

Best-case scenario: the concerned citizens report the channel as inappropriate. This allows Twitch to investigate and decide whether the content violates site policies.

Sometimes, however, the honest reports turn into vigilante justice.

Female streamers report being harassed in their chat box with people threatening to report them or telling them en masse that their legitimate content violates the terms of service.

For what it's worth, Twitch's policies actually explicity state that, even if you think streamers are violating the rules, that's not an excuse to harass them. The proper response, according to the platform, is to report them and allow Twitch's employees to take the reins from there.

But when have rules lawyers ever been stopped by someone pointing out that they're breaking the rules themselves?

Twitch's cam girl vigilantes are one example of the different ways in which gaming culture continues to perpetuate itself as a boys-only club by harassing women who try to break into the industry.

So where do we stand?

If you're still interested in using Twitch to get your rocks off, fear not. You may have to get a little more creative than simply jerking it to hardcore porn, but there's space for potentially titillating content that doesn't violate Twitch's policies.

The aforementioned body painters often wear very little clothing beyond what's necessary to maintain their status on Twitch, so that might be worth looking into if artistic nudity is your thing.

Another option is gaming channels--while Twitch has some restrictions on what kinds of nudity and violence can be shown, they're more lax if it's merely part of video gameplay and not a primary part of the channel's appeal.

Furthermore, there's no ban on adult language (although channels' decisions about using potty language are influenced by promotional and sponsor considerations), so there are channels where you can find some narrated adult content.

Literary erotica is a huge market, and while there aren't many Twitch streamers who promote themselves as spoken word eroticists (probably for fear of Twitch's wrath), a bit of digging is sure to turn up some hot adult content.

Finally, among the IRL channels, there are plenty of opportunities for people with specific fetishes to find SFW content that might just do the trick, like vore fetishists seeking foodie content.

At the end of the day, we're all human, and the internet is the internet: if you really want to find some adult content, someone out there is looking to provide it, and Twitch might just be the perfect platform for you.

Kylie is online and wants to sext.