Amazon.com, Inc.’s video game streaming service Twitch has considered the statement “won’t somebody please think of the children” and decided to ban users from streaming any game that has an Adults Only (AO) rating.

The ban affects popular games regularly streaming on the service including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Manhunt 2.

Twitch justified the move as being one of clarification, saying that “Previously, we made game-specific decisions about which games would and would not be available for broadcast – sometimes due to overtly sexual content, sometimes due to gratuitous violence. This is unsustainable and unclear, generating only further confusion among Twitch broadcasters.”

“We would like to make this policy as transparent as possible….[so] today, we’re updating the RoC with regard to Adult Only (AO) games. Simply put, AO games are not welcome on Twitch.”

Adding to a possible level of confusion is that the new policy applies to games as they are rated in the United States, but other countries have differing censorship rules, such as Australia which has an R18+ (Restricted to people 18 years or over) rating that doesn’t really correspond with the United States ratings, given some games with an AO rating in the States may have a MA15+ rating in Australia (Mature Accompanied 15 years or over rating.)

PC World points out that it can work the other way, with games such as The Witcher 3 are rated the equivalent of Adult’s Only in Europe and other territories but not in the United States are acceptable.

Inclusively thinking of the children

One remarkable part of Twitch’s statement was the claim that “Our goal at Twitch is to create a safe, welcoming, inclusive community platform where everyone can feel comfortable and have fun.”

Complete and utter Orwellian newspeak dross.

Here’s a few definitions of “inclusive” from Dictionary.com: including or encompassing the stated limit or extremes in consideration or account; including a great deal, or encompassing everything concerned; enclosing, embracing.

Excluding adult content from Twitch isn’t “inclusive,” it’s exclusive, in the sense of the word that it excludes certain users, and in no way does the move “include” more users.

The key though is the use of the word “safe,” a commonly used word in a time where space spaces are all the rage, that includes pandering to the do-gooders and politically correct, a weird mashup of puritanical Christians and the feminist hard core left, that wants nothing more than to censor all speech that may “trigger” them or “offend” them.

If you’ve got a startup that competes with Twitch and actually believes in free speech, drop SiliconANGLE a line, we’d love to take a look at what you’ve got on offer.