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What is Twitter?
Twitter is a popular microblogging and social networking site. Once you create an account, you can post periodic updates about yourself— what you're thinking about, what you're doing, what the person next to you is doing, or just about anything—so long as the post is 140 characters or shorter. These short posts are called "tweets."
Concerns for Parents
- Like any social networking site, using Twitter will allow your child to interact with people across the globe. Online predators and other shady characters may try to start a conversation with your child.
- Twitter has become spam's newest frontier. Your child may get pointless or offensive "tweets" from strangers.
- Unlike on Facebook, it's harder to maintain a small, private circle of contacts on Twitter. This can be a great advantage if you want to build a large network quickly, but may not be good for kids and teens.
- Avoid over-sharing on Twitter. http://pleaserobme.com is a website dedicated to exposing the dangers of posting too much information on Twitter.
How Can I Keep My Child Safe?
- Twitter profiles have privacy settings. You can allow as many or as few people as you'd like to see a Twitter page.
- After setting age-appropriate privacy and security settings for your child (note that the minimum age to create a Twitter account is 13), reiterate the basics of Internet safety. Anything posted online has the potential to be seen by anybody! Be wise about what personal information is posted and follow all rules of Netiquette.
- Be sure your child chooses a safe username that will not attract sexual predators or cyberbullies.
Where Can I Learn More?
Click here for More About Twitter.
Here's a helpful article outlining what parents should know about Twitter.
Read this blog post about Twitter and kids.
This tutorial, posted on YouTube, will teach you how to set up a Twitter account and will walk you through the basics of finding followers and people to follow.
