What happens when you give people a camera and give them the freedom to show themselves wherever they are streaming? Sometimes lines will be crossed for the sake of fame and monetary gain, and that’s what I want to write about today. There are a few issues on Twitch that have been popping up on various news media, which honestly did not surprise me. It has to do with three words.

Hot Tub Meta

A quick google search gave me lots of results from gaming news sites to even the NY Post and other newspapers. I do not recommend looking it up if you are a male, because there are a lot of images of girls in bikinis, so if you deal with temptation (as most guys do) then I would avoid it. I won’t be sharing any of those images on this post, nor any website references because about all of them had these pictures and I don’t want to be the catalyst to lust.

So what exactly is “hot tub meta”? It’s where, mainly, female streamers have been recording from either an actual hot tub, bathtub, inflatable pool or anything else that can hold water, in a bikini and just chatting with their followers. The issue is that there have been so many of these videos being made, that it was showing up on a lot of users main page to watch. So instead of being recommended different games to watch, you were being shown a girl in a bikini.

Is there anything wrong with a girl being in a bikini and wading in water? Of course not, but one major issue is that a lot of young kids and teenagers consume content on Twitch and these videos, whether intentional or not, are leading them to watch almost naked women. A lot of parents would not want children watching these videos, but the creators are fine with it because they are getting paid by the viewers. Twitch doesn’t do much at all to prevent these videos from showing right when you login, at most their will be a disclaimer before you watch which you just click through. You can also select that you do not want to see this content, but again, Twitch isn’t purposefully doing anything to prevent it from being viewed.

The Invisible Line

At the bottom of this post is a video from SouZy, who discusses about when would Twitch deem a hot tub stream too “steamy” for viewing? How small can the bikini be? What kind of bottom is too small? How sensual can it be to where it gets taken down? The problem is that there is this “invisible line” that people will always want to cross, and if you do not put any restrictions or moral guidelines, it will be crossed since there are no consequences.

I don’t think Twitch should be the place where this kind of content is displayed. I understand that as a Christian, I want my media to be devoid of certain things but I don’t live in fantasy land. I can’t avoid everything or live scared of the world, but I can also advocate against something like the hot tub meta controversy.

The reality is, sensual content sells and it always will, so a lot of people are taking advantage of that fact and getting a lot of subs, donations, views and followers just because they are showing off their skin. Again, there’s nothing wrong with a woman having a curvy body, looking very attractive, or wearing a bikini. If money nor followers were involved, I doubt I would even be making this post, but it needs to be brought to the attention of those that use Twitch to be cautious.

Lust can lead to addictions, which can also lead to disrespecting women. It’s a dangerous road that Christ warned us about, and is mentioned many times in the bible.

Matthew 5:28

²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Check out the video below, where SouZy breaks down Twitch’s response to the hot tub streamers, and his opinion as a pastor to what we should do.

*Update 6/7/21: Twitch did a post explaining their new category which permits hot tub streams and other details about this topic*

Let me know in the comments what you think about all of this! God bless and keep on gaming.