What parents need to know about Kick — a livestreaming platform with minimal moderation, adult content, and significant risks for younger viewers.
Kick is a live-streaming platform, similar to Twitch, known for lighter content moderation and popular for gaming and 'just chatting' broadcasts.
Official age
13+
We recommend
18+
Developer
Kick Streaming Pty Ltd
Risks
4
Kick is a livestreaming platform launched in 2023 as an alternative to Twitch, attracting streamers who had been banned from or who disagreed with Twitch's content moderation policies. Kick's primary differentiator is its deliberately permissive content moderation: the platform allows content that would be removed from Twitch or YouTube, including gambling streams, very explicit language, and content that approaches adult-only material. It has attracted some of the most-watched streamers in the world, which gives it a veneer of legitimacy, but the content environment is significantly less safe than mainstream platforms.
Children and teenagers often discover Kick through YouTube or social media when following streamers who have moved from Twitch. The platform's interface is similar to Twitch, which makes it familiar. Live chat in streams is active and largely unmoderated, and some streams involve gambling content (casino slots, poker), extreme challenges, and strong language.
Mature Content Filter
Location: Account settings → Content Preferences
Set to: Mature content should be restricted on any account used by a child
Kick allows mature content categories. Ensuring your child's account (if they have one) has mature content restricted is important — but platform-level controls are weak and content gatekeeping is less reliable than on Twitch or YouTube.
Check whether your child is watching Kick and which streamers they follow — search for the streamers' names on Kick to understand the type of content involved
Time: 15 minutes
If your child is under 16, consider blocking Kick via router or device parental controls given the weak content moderation
Time: 15 minutes
Talk to your child about why gambling content, which is prevalent on Kick, is not appropriate entertainment for children
Time: 15 minutes
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
Myth: Kick must have similar age checks and parental controls to YouTube or Twitch.
Fact: Kick is far lighter-touch: an account needs only a self-declared date of birth, and there's nothing like the family-linked accounts, supervised modes or content filters the mainstream platforms offer. With gambling streams a prominent, promoted category, that combination is why device- or router-level blocking is usually the only dependable control for a younger child.
Myth: If my teenager is only watching and not chatting, there isn't much risk.
Fact: The stream content itself is the main exposure on Kick — extreme challenges, strong language and content that approaches adult-only material appear regularly — so the risk doesn't depend on whether your child ever types in the chat.
Myth: A platform with some of the world's biggest streamers must have decent safety standards.
Fact: Kick's scale and high-profile streamers give it a veneer of legitimacy, but its moderation is deliberately more permissive than mainstream platforms, which is part of why it attracted streamers who had been banned elsewhere.
Not appropriate at this age. Gambling streams and largely unmoderated chat are common, so this isn't a platform to introduce even with supervision — if a favourite creator has moved to Kick, watch their clips on a safer platform instead.
Still not recommended. If they've found Kick through a streamer's clips on YouTube or social media, explain plainly why the same person's content is less safe on Kick, and consider blocking the app or site via your router or device controls.
Kick remains hard to recommend at this age because of how normalised gambling content is on the platform. If your teenager is already watching, focus the conversation on recognising gambling streams as advertising rather than entertainment, and check what device-level blocks you can still apply.
As they approach adulthood, shift from blocking towards informed judgement — talk openly about how gambling streams are designed to make betting look ordinary and exciting, since that framing doesn't stop mattering the day someone turns 18.
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