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'Kissing or Licking' Microphone Is Sexual, Twitch Says (mashable.com) 77

Earlier this week, Twitch introduced Content Classification Labels to help streamers label their content when they're doing something "mature." Streamers are supposed to use Content Classification Labels when their content contains the following: Mature-Rated Games; Sexual Themes; Drugs, Intoxication or Excessive Tobacco Use; Violent and Graphic Depictions; Significant Profanity or Vulgarity; and/or Gambling. Interestingly, kissing or licking a microphone falls under "Sexual Themes." From a report: According to Twitch's FAQ, "Examples of sexual themes include prolonged or repeated kissing of another individual or object, detailed non-educational discussions of sexual topics or experiences, and content or behavior that is very likely to elicit a mature chat conversation."

Those who love ASMR will know that repeating kisses on a mic is a classic ASMR move. The FAQ addresses this, saying: "To be more direct -- many ASMR practices are focused on mindfulness and are not sexual, but we consider kissing or licking a microphone to fall within Sexual Themes." Additionally, hot tub streams and pole dancing will fall under Sexual Themes.

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'Kissing or Licking' Microphone Is Sexual, Twitch Says

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  • Context (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Disco Ninja ( 7135795 ) on Thursday June 22, 2023 @08:37PM (#63625062)
    It is like eating a so called phallic food. An ice cream cone or popsicle are innocent until it is not. I am not trying to discourage either activity but there is a difference
    • Re: Context (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymouse Cowtard ( 6211666 ) on Thursday June 22, 2023 @08:46PM (#63625076) Homepage
      Orrr, come on. Give a gamer a break. They're otherwise only ever kissed by family. This is a cruel and unusual restriction.

      Microphones are people too!

    • by jonadab ( 583620 )
      Right, it's super easy to imagine someone kissing or licking a microphone in an entirely non-sexual way. But given what I know about Twitch, that's probably not really how people on there have been doing it. In particular, Twitch tends to collect people who don't like YouTube's decency guidelines. So yeah, if they're kissing and licking microphones, it's probably not because they're seven years old and too innocent to associate kissing and licking with sexuality.

      I'm guessing here... but yeah, tell me all
  • Right here. I've been wondering which post I would care the ABSOLUTE LEAST about this week. THIS is the one. Don't give a rat's ass.

    Maybe it's a generational thing -- idunno, judge me by my sort-of-low Slash ID. Or, maybe it's my life situation -- Gen X, family man, lamenting the damage that social media has done to society. I just tune out with all things twitch-concerned.

    But, funny thing is, as I type this, I'm watching the Running with Speed [imdb.com] documentary, and it's actually pretty interesting.
    • And no, it's not just because a kid might see some T&A like we all did growing up. Porn found through Twitch is arguably worse than porn found through Pornhub:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      1. It's a short hop over to porn site Fansly, which accepts your Twitch account to log in. So often the performers themselves are trying to promote/sell their content to minors (i.e. 13+ yr olds from Twitch). Most will argue (and I would generally agree) that amateur pornstars controlling their own work an
    • by Merk42 ( 1906718 )

      Right here. I've been wondering which post I would care the ABSOLUTE LEAST about this week. THIS is the one. Don't give a rat's ass

      You cared enough to rant about it.

    • by aitikin ( 909209 )

      ...judge me by my sort-of-low Slash ID...

      Before the Reddit debacle, I would've considered yours a low /. ID. We've had some old dogs coming back here since.

  • Is it a dick? Is it a turd? Let's twitch a bitch and see.

  • Nooooo, you think?

    Guessing some very rich kid's mom finally got around to accidentally catching their little innocent darling watching Amouranth doing ASMR and had a heart attack.

    • For those who don't know, ASMR is when you buy an expensive microphone and make very quiet noises for perverts.

      • You know, I have this policy of wanting to learn at least one new thing every day. And of course, every day it gets harder because, well, there's only so many thing that exist and they are new only once.

        This is one of the times when I wonder whether it's maybe time to stop with it. There just isn't much left to learn worth learning...

      • by Anonymous Coward

        For those who don't know, ASMR is when you buy an expensive microphone and make very quiet noises for people who like such sounds.

        FTFY.

        The sounds need not be, and often are not, sexual at all.

        Please be careful with your preconceived notions, and perhaps also be a bit more careful with revealing just how much you are projecting yourself unto others.

      • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        And Amouranth is one of the top OnlyFans porn stars that made her name pushing the boundaries of what constitutes "sexual content" on Twitch for a very long time.

        She's unironically a very talented individual. In that she has a talent of walking the razor's edge of what California furries working for billionnaires in online censorship business will allow.

      • by aepervius ( 535155 ) on Friday June 23, 2023 @05:30AM (#63625772)
        ASMR started as simply noise which are barely audible so that it triggers some frisson reaction in your scalp/skin. And it is nothing perverted - same reaction you get with barely audible soft click-click-click of a keyboard for example, or plastic being softly crinkled in one ear. Then quickly, as everything on twitch, "egirl" saw that as a cheap way to get plenty of view, started licking microphone, have deep decoltée... Whispering in ears, Etc...

        Broadly speaking if you use sexual similar or intimate stimuli yes this is sexual. But non sexual asmr exists and is the majority of it , just not on twich where it is egirl licking all day.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's not really new, some radio presenters used to do it. Talk quietly, super close to the mic. Back in the day they thought it made them sound mysterious or like they were whispering the truth in your ear.

        It was only when platforms like Twitch and YouTube allowed for video that it became sexy.

  • No, Paige!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by algaeman ( 600564 ) on Thursday June 22, 2023 @09:07PM (#63625120)
    Anything is sexual content if you are brave enough.
    • Anything is sexual content if you are brave enough.

      Anything is sexual content if you are perverted or depraved enough. Sometimes it is only the viewer thinking the perverted thoughts, especially when said person is a so called puritan.

      • Anything is sexual content if you are brave enough.

        Anything is sexual content if you are perverted or depraved enough. Sometimes it is only the viewer thinking the perverted thoughts, especially when said person is a so called puritan.

        While you might be correct, its a whole lot more fun if you AREN'T a Puritan.

        • Anything is sexual content if you are brave enough.

          Anything is sexual content if you are perverted or depraved enough. Sometimes it is only the viewer thinking the perverted thoughts, especially when said person is a so called puritan.

          While you might be correct, its a whole lot more fun if you AREN'T a Puritan.

          Totally agree. Puritans see the fun and shit on it. Everyone else enjoys it.

  • Stupid (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This is a ridiculous story. Who cared?

    But just for context, where can I find videos of camgirls giving oral to their microphone?

    • This is a ridiculous story. Who cared?

      But just for context, where can I find videos of camgirls giving oral to their microphone?

      Twitch. If you had actually read the 'ridiculous story', you would have known.

  • Because that sounds very much like it. Probably some religious fuckups behind this as usual.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Twitch do want to ruin their business, but this isn't how they're going to do it. Twitch is still mostly gaming with a small off topic niche of hot tubs, ASMR and mildly sexual content.

    • It's the typical use content website... low-key porn helps drive growth, but once it gets too prominent advertisers balk and financial institutions get skittish about doing business with you. And yes, zealous religious folks have a lot to do with this. Grown-ass adults like those at the deceptively named National Center on Sexual Exploitation apparently have nothing better to do with their lives than to try and legislate away the freedoms of others.
    • by real_nickname ( 6922224 ) on Friday June 23, 2023 @01:42AM (#63625502)
      What's wrong giving proper classification to channels? They don't forbid these kind of sexual content. Look at top ASMR channels, strangely they belong to sexy girls. That's fine but it's erotic content and should be properly labeled. They may lose their brand sponsor but it's not twitch fault.
      • Exactly. Twitch viewers are very accepting of physically unattractive nerdy people (I'd say probably the most of viewers of the different types of media), but there are very few people going to be watching neckbeards licking these microphones. Just like the hot-tub stuff it is pretty clear what is the draw there.

    • Because that sounds very much like it.

      You have shown a quite disturbing trend of thinking that the only reason any business survives is because men get their rocks off to it. You've posted this about Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit, and now Twitch. At least with Tumblr you were partially correct. Porn makes up somewhere close to fucking-none of Twitch.

      Does Slashdot have a secret porn site that I'm not aware of? Is that why you're here?

      • I'm not a twitch user, but my perception of twitch is that it's mostly camgirls first and gaming second. You can tell me this is factually wrong and I'll accept your judgement, but perhaps twitch is realising that there's a lot of people like me, who think it's softcore porn for teenagers, where camgirls perform mildly lewd acts for tips and less livestream gaming. And they or more likely their advertisers are not enthused and so they are perhaps over-correcting to try and defeat a problem of public percept
        • Keep in mind this is a rather strange time to be checking data, but here is the current streaming categories by viewer counts:

          Just Chatting - 384k
          Street Fighter - 179k
          Valorant - 104k
          League of Legends - 94.3k
          Diablo IV - 94.1k
          Grand Theft Auto V - 93.3k
          Final Fantasy XVI - 81.9k
          Teamfight Tactics - 78.8k
          Overwatch 2 - 72.1k
          DOTA 2 - 67.1k
          Counter-Strike - 53.5k
          Only Up - 43.7k
          Minecraft - 37.8k
          Fortnite - 34k
          Apex Legends - 32.5k
          Hearthstone - 32k
          Dead by Daylight - 31.5k
          World of Warcraft - 28.5k
          Call of Duty - 28.2k
          Casin

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Unlike you, I live in the real world. You also seem to be a victorian fuckup, because "sexual content" does not mean "porn" on twitch at all. There is no porn on twitch. I recommend a visit to pornhub or the like so you know what you are talking about because at the moment you don't.

    • More likely Amazon is catering to parents who buy Prime and pay for their kids subscriptions to Twitch, and want them to mentally associate their brand with safety.

  • Please define your weirdo acronyms and initialisms the first time you use them, as not everyone may be a member of your esoteric clique.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

      You know it would be faster to type ASMR into Google than it would have been to make your post. Are you actually not interested and instead craving attention?

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by greytree ( 7124971 )
        You know it would be faster to ignore him and not crave attention by posting to ask him if he is actually not interested and instead craving attention?
        • You know it would be faster to ignore him

          I'm not doing this for efficiency. I take active pleasure in calling out silly people. He on the other hand is seeking understanding, he has a more efficient means of doing that.

          At least my post was on topic. What about yours? Who's the attention whore now ;-)

          • "I take active pleasure in calling out silly people."

            Then call out the silly editors who do a shit job here.

            Like he did.
      • If the reader of a news item has to do that, the writer has failed.

        Advanced Surface Movement Radar is what someone with military term search history will get. Someone in french speaking region will get medical term.

    • by jonadab ( 583620 )
      There's this cool new invention you can use to look up words and phrases you don't know...
  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday June 23, 2023 @01:31AM (#63625484)

    Putting condoms on cucumbers and eating bananas is still ok?

  • Since when are hot tubs sexual?

    I've never seen anyone stream from a hot tub, but it sounds like a great idea! I bet I would find it relaxing to watch. The sound of hot bubbling water...

    I've spent many hours in my life in hot tubs, alone or with other people, with no sexual implications of any kind!

    On the other hand, I must admit that I don't exactly know what Twitch is. I think long ago I had a drawing program on my phone once called that, but I didn't use it. Lately when I hear the word it seems to refer

    • I remember parts of this. There was a few female streamers who streamed in bikinis to help lubricate the wallets of their viewers. Twitch didn't like this, but they didn't want to ban girl flesh entirely. So they made the policy that clothing had to be "appropriate" for the environment. Ergo hot tub. So it's sexual by association since it's a loophole to let the sexual streamers continue to do what they did before the rule change.

      I only hear snippets about Twitch, and so every time it's a WTF. And then my m

    • by mysidia ( 191772 )

      Since when are hot tubs sexual?

      Only if you are of age 18+, then I would highly suggest taking a look at the Twitch Directory: You can search - pools, hot tubs, and beaches

      You don't necessarily have to click on any of the channels... just scroll the thumbnails for a while can give a pretty good idea of what hot tub streamers are up to, I think.

      In short: the hot tub is a pretext Just Chatting streamers stream under which triggers an exception to the site's Appropriate Attire policy (They used to be do

  • Microphones are hot, especially the ones with a round end made of metal. Wait, what?
  • Does anyone know the final result of their waffling about 360 no scope on-cam farts directly into the mic? They said it's banned but XQC is famous for it and I never heard the final decision.
    This is absolutely no a serious post in any way.
  • So ASMR is not sexual, but the sounds of licking a mic and visual of the streamer licking are Not strictly just ASMR - It is ASMR in a sexual context.. there is kind of an implication here that peoples' affinity to this type of content is a sexual theme alluding to sex acts.

    They aren't being prohibited to do it: Twitch does Not say there it is Sexually suggestive and therefore banned from the site (Twitch doesn't allow sexual suggestive content). What Twitch is saying is that it needs to be labell

  • Back before she was a superstar, I saw Tina Turner perform live. By the end of the show, there was no doubt whatsoever that what can be done with a microphone would fall under "Sexual Themes".

    • Watched several videos of Tina Turner and Dave Bowie when Tina died. Maybe they are just both great actors, but DAMN, those two had a lot of sexual energy between them! Like, they definitely looked like they really wanted to bang! And I don't blame them...
  • I guess I'm gonna have to stop deep-throating my microphone then! Don't they make mics that aren't phallic shaped?

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