Twitch IRL
Twitch IRL (In Real Life) has been a part of Twitch since 2016 and has continued to grow in popularity since it first arrived on the website. A lot of people really enjoy these vlog streamers and the content they offer, but many of us, including myself, see it as a real big problem for the streaming community. Twitch is a video game streaming service unlike any else, and it offers a new form of fantastic entertainment to millions of people every day. So why did they decide to bring IRL and how is it affecting the community? According to the Twitch's guidelines, IRL is supposed to be for streamers to“...directly interact with your viewers in a one-to-many vlog-like style.”
Pros
IRL streams have become increasingly popular and are a large source of income for many of the IRL streamers, it's relatively easy to pick up your cell phone and talk at it for a couple hours and interact with your audience. It brings a large source of income to Twitch as well since many of these IRL streamers that are partnered through the website. So Twitch can look at this and say hey this seems to work.
This section allows many people to attain the audience they have been looking for, and if they get popular enough, they can become a partner. Hopefully the streamer can use this as a source of income. Since justin.tv was first born, it was a platform to stream all sorts of random stuff, but it rapidly turned into a place to stream live gameplay, and thus Twitch was born.
Cons
First of all the Twitch Community Guidelines clearly states “Inappropriate Broadcaster Behavior and Attire Nudity and conduct involving overtly sexual behavior and/or attire are prohibited.” Twitch Community Guidelines So with this being said let’s get into it.
Ok now for the real bread and butter of why I wrote this article. Twitch IRL is not an inherently BAD section on twitch, like I said in the above paragraph, but it has turned into a much worse situation than I think Twitch thought it would be. First off, IRL has become a playground for girls to essentially just show case their breasts, with webcams up above their heads pointing down to very low cut tank tops.
This IRL section has quickly turned into a PG-13 cam girl section. Low cut tops isn’t even the worst part, we are also talking about shorts that are so short they basically look like thongs, and the girl will stand up at any opportunity and bend over, flashing her booty right in the camera, whether it's to write something on a chalkboard or to do a cartwheel. If IRL was used as Twitch intended it to be used, then there would not be as much of an issue. However, people have taken advantage of it to show off their bodies to people, many of which are young viewers looking for something like that without actually having to type porn into their web browser.
I have visited a few of these IRL streams and NONE of them offer a mature content filter before entering the channel where you can see a girl in nothing but a sports bra and such short shorts they might as well be panties. This isn’t just limited to females either. I have seen a few channels of guys without shirts on putting baby oil all over there muscles. That's not IRL, that's not even quality content, it's PG-13 cam girls and boys trying to be as sexy as they can without actually taking off their clothes. This is not something many streamers and viewers want on this site because it has nothing to do with gaming. Many are becoming increasingly more popular by doing nothing more than dressing scantily clad.
I have actually even seen girls in short skirts lift up their skirts and flash their panties really quick, some have even gone so far as to actually show their breasts on camera for donations. I’m not blaming Twitch for this, but it needs to be stopped. Many people are abusing this section and using it to be softcore porn models. I don’t see how wearing tiny shorts and a sports bra while pole dancing or doing cart wheels to show half of your butt cheeks is considered vlogging.
I have even tried reaching out to Twitch to try and get any sort of comment about these issues with IRL, and it seems they have refused to make any sort of remark on the situation. So we can only assume they are avoiding the issues entirely or don’t want to acknowledge that it's an issue.
Thoughts
I strongly feel that Twitch should get rid of it entirely. Even though Twitch is not strictly a gaming website, that’s what people go to it for generally, but it’s turning into a place where you can get nearly naked on camera for people who aren’t even of legal age to be seeing that kind of content. Again, there is nothing wrong with the idea of IRL on Twitch but to many people have exploited it and are using it in inappropriate ways.
What are your thoughts though? Do you agree with me or do you think IRL should stay? Let me know in the comment section below.
