Popular Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins chose a few words for parents in an interview with The New York Times: Listen and, most importantly, teach your children.
The publication asked Ninja several questions about a number of things in his life, from his plans to transition to dubbing to his comments a few years ago about not playing with women. One issue, in particular, revolved around the behavior of children who attended their live broadcasts. When asked what could be done to mitigate the often childish and inflammatory comments made in the chat, which inevitably tend to turn into some form of derogatory or racial slander, Ninja said that “it all comes down to parenting.”
“But it all comes down to parenting,” said Ninja. “Do you want to know who your son is? Listen to him when he’s playing video games when he thinks you’re not. Another thing: how a white child knows he has the privilege of being white if his parents never teach him or not to talk about racism ? “
Ninja went on to say that it is not his job to teach children about culture or race-related topics because his first instinct is to assume he is being cheated in the chat.
“If they are playing and their first interaction with racism is one of their friends saying the word with N and they have no idea what it is – what if it was in my stream?” Ninja asked. “Is it my job to have this conversation with this boy? No, because the first thing that crosses my mind is: this boy is doing this on purpose to trick me. If someone says racial slander in someone else’s flow, it can potentially banish that streamer. It’s awful, but it’s the first thing I think. “
At the same time, however, Ninja noted that the illusion of anonymity on the internet encourages people to “say what they want”. Ninja still thinks that parents should get involved, however.
“I don’t think it’s a game. I think it’s the internet culture. People are behind the screen. They say what they want and can get away with it. You have complete anonymity. Your information and data are precious and should remain private, but it’s a shit that there are kids who can say racist things and be incredibly aggressive and threatening to women online and have no repercussions. It would be amazing if someone said something threatening, you could say, ‘Let me see this guy’s player etiquette on this site ‘- if the law could do that, not a normal person – and then crash: ‘It’s Jimmy. He said that. Let’s call his parents. ‘”