Twitch has finally clarified and updated their forever-confusing policy on adult content for content creators, surprisingly reversing course to allow more adult content.

The new policy changes, which stem from confusion with some users and/or games being banned and others aren’t, mostly came from the fact that Twitch had two separate policies in their Community Guidelines, for sexual content.

To improve things, they’ve combined both policies and removed redundant language and were updated to make it more clear what content needed a “Sexual Themes Label,” and what didn’t.

Twitch is also now allowing the following content which was previously prohibited entirely:

• “Fictionalized (drawn, animated, or sculpted) fully exposed female-presenting breasts and/or genitals or buttocks regardless of gender. There is a thriving artist community on Twitch, and this policy was overly punitive and did not reflect the impact of the content.”
• “Content with a focus on fictionalized (drawn, animated, or sculpted) sexual body parts regardless of gender (such as doing nude figure drawing) are allowed with a Sexual Themes Label. However, fictionalized sexual acts or masturbation remain prohibited.”
• Body writing on female-presenting breasts and/or buttocks regardless of gender. The Twitch Attire Policy already allows body art on breasts and buttocks, so this change makes these policies consistent.
• Erotic dances that involve disrobing or disrobing gestures, such as strip teases.
• Popular dances, such as twerking, grinding, and pole dancing are now allowed without a label. Previously some dances were prohibited and others were allowed with a label. Enforcing on dances regardless of context meant our policy prohibited twerking at a wedding or taking a pole dancing exercise class, for example. The policy now takes context into consideration, and only prohibits streaming inside of an adult entertainment establishment.

When it comes to gaming though, Twitch is still not allowing games that focus on sexual content or games that have been modified to have sexual content, even including nude patches that fans love doing:

We handle nudity in games in two ways. First, games featuring nudity, pornography, sex, or sexual violence as a core focus or feature are entirely prohibited. Custom gameplay or visual modifications that include nudity or sex content, including uncensored patches, in otherwise allowed games are prohibited. Learn more about prohibited games.

Second, for games where nudity is not the core focus or feature, the Mature-rated Games Content Classification Label is sufficient for incidental nudity. However, the Sexual Themes Label must be applied to gameplay that focuses on nudity. Learn more about the Mature-rated Games Content Classification Label.

Users may not engage in simulated sexual activity or erotic roleplay with other players in online games. Games that primarily consist of user-generated content, in-game roleplay, or interactions in virtual reality are not exempt from this policy.

This means Twitch will keep their list of banned games like Yandere Simulator but egirls like Amouranth are now allowed to openly poledance for dollars.

To be clear, this also means artists are now allowed to draw or model full blown nudity, live on Twitch, though they’re still not allowing fictional depictions of sexual acts or masturbation.

The new policy changes are still more of the same, which many users note is a double standard with sexual content in gaming – most especially Japanese games – and egirls that use sexuality to earn sadboy dollars.

This is Niche Gamer Tech. In this column, we regularly cover tech and things related to the tech industry.