A Twitch streamer was banned because his account was created when he was younger than 13 years old, violating the ToS. He is disappointed, as some big streamers were also too young, yet they were allowed to keep their accounts.
What exactly happened? The streamer AverageHarry, who raised 5,000 euros for a good cause in August 2019, applied for Twitch partnership. But after 72 days of waiting, he was denied.
The official reason was that while he stated he was 15 years old in his application, this did not match his Twitch account. He created the account when he was 12 years old, which again violates Twitch’s Terms of Service.
Cheating on his age came to light through the partnership application.
On January 23, his account was even permanently banned. Although AverageHarry is allowed to create a new account and work towards partnership again, his nearly 90,000 followers and the goals achieved for the partnership are gone for now.
What is the problem with that? There was a big outcry on reddit. AverageHarry is by no means the only young streamer who created their account before turning 13.
But unlike AverageHarry, others were allowed to keep their accounts.
Famous streamers like Benjyfishy and TommyInnit were also too young
Which streamers were also too young? The user NIXOOO10 compiled a list of major streamers who did not reach the necessary age at the time of creating their accounts. And they are all still online:
- Bugha (3.8 million followers) – 12 years old at account creation
- Benjyfishy (2.8 million followers) – 10 years old at account creation and a professional in Fortnite. He recently claimed that e-sports in Fortnite is dying
- Mongraal (3.8 million followers) – 12 years old at account creation
- Fresh (3.9 million followers) – 10 years old at account creation
- Symfuhny (2.8 million followers) – 12 years old at account creation
- TommyInnit (3.3 million followers) – 11 years old at account creation and currently particularly successful with Minecraft
Not all streamers started live streaming directly at that age, but at least they created their accounts. And that is already forbidden according to the ToS.
Reddit users suspect that they are allowed to keep their accounts because they are much bigger and more relevant than AverageHarry. In their eyes, the ban is just hypocrisy.
No clear line in bans: It has long been criticized that Twitch does not have a clear line when it comes to bans. A negative example for many is the streamer Natalia “Alinity” Mogollon. She has repeatedly been in negative situations:
- She once threw a cat and gave another cat a vodka kiss
- She got into it with one of her dogs – the dog was sniffing her crotch
- In 2020, she banned herself for 3 days after her naked breast was visible. Twitch only gave her a 24-hour ban
She is still active on Twitch today.
On the other hand, there are always streamers who have received harsher penalties for lesser offenses:
- One of the best CS:GO players was temporarily banned for joking with a friend
- The streamer forsen was permanently banned for reacting live to a meme he was not familiar with. However, the ban has since been lifted
The CEO of Twitch admitted mistakes, but stated that they always consider the context of the situation when it comes to bans. Nevertheless, many see no clear line in the bans and accuse Twitch of protecting their “favorites”.
