Scroll through the In Real Life (IRL) section of streaming site Twitch and you could be forgiven for thinking, now and then, that you have landed on a camgirl site.

Scattered among the artists, cooks and professional eaters are a growing band of young women wearing revealing clothing while they game. Some go further and entertain fans by dancing or by doing a series of suggestive exercises, like squats, to tempt people to subscribe to their channel or to hand over Twitch’s micro-currency – bits.

Dubbed “booby streamers” these young women have been a feature of Twitch for years but their numbers have grown significantly over the last few months, prompting a wave of complaints.

On social media many parents have posted messages about what their younger children are seeing when they visit the site, expressing alarm at how much of a screen supposedly showing in-game action is focused on a woman’s body.

In recent weeks, high-profile streamers have complained about Twitch’s tolerance of these women and for doing a “poor job” of policing the growing amount of sexual content on the site.

The complaints have prompted a crackdown on women streamers who sell sexual services via their Twitch bio. Some have been suspended or banned for a few days and been made to purge links to places such as Patreon where explicit pictures and shows could be bought.

– BBC News

Read more: Calls for Twitch to Police ‘Sexual Streaming’

Image by Marvin Meyer from Unsplash