Parents' Guide to

Twitter

By Susan Yudt, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Limited characters, lots of info, lasting online legacy.

Website http://www.twitter.com
Twitter Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this website.

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Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 296 parent reviews

C.Z
C.Z Adult
July 30, 2021
age 18+

Don’t let your children on this site, filled with predators

I was suspended by twitter staff who DID review my tweets calling out zoophilia and pedophilia communities that twitter has allowed to exist. A human reviewed my message, look at the context of the conversation, and decided I was in the wrong for speaking out against predators on their site. No I didn’t do something distasteful like encourage violence or self harm, one of the reported responses was actually telling them to seek professional help and get better. Twitter is allowing these communities of animal and child endangerment to exist on their platform and are actively protecting them aswell. So the twitter team has gotten back to me telling me I was in the wrong and they found nothing wrong with people advocating pedophilia, zoophilia, and necrophilia. Twitter is giving these communities and eco chamber allowing them to mass report people who tell them to seek help before they hurt somebody. Twitter, the safe haven for child and animal endangerment.
chocolatecake123
chocolatecake123 Adult
December 13, 2020
age 14+

Lots of problems

I think that Twitter is the most toxic social network right now—even Instagram, Facebook and others don’t compare. Unlike Facebook and some other social networks, Twitter can be used completely anonymously (i.e. you don’t have to use your real name or post photos of yourself). Make no mistake, this is a good thing (people often tend to underestimate Facebook’s privacy issues), but it encourages some people to act in ways they never would if their real name were attached. And, as Twitter is home to the world’s most well-known politicians, a large number of trending hashtags are often related to politics, which inevitably leads to toxicity and arguments. Don’t even get me started with “stan” culture and the manner in which some “stans” treat those who are indifferent towards or dislike their favorite celebrity. Twitter also has issues when it comes to the way the site is run—accounts are regularly suspended by mistake when the user has done nothing that violates site rules, and, speaking for myself, my account is regularly “limited” out of nowhere. When Twitter “limits” an account, you’ll likely have to enter your phone number to “verify” the account so you can access it again. This can be a major privacy concern (not everyone wants something so personal connected to their account).
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Privacy Rating Warning

  • Personal information is not sold or rented to third parties.
  • Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.
  • Data are collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • User's information is used to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Data profiles are created and used for personalised advertisements.
Learn more about our privacy ratings

What’s It About?

TWITTER is an online social-networking and microblogging platform that lets users communicate through 280-character messages ("tweets"). Millions of people use it to keep up with news, gossip, weather, and more. Once you sign up, you can follow other users, who'll show up in a scrolling list of real-time tweets. Teens can follow specific accounts or hashtags. They can comment on tweets, which will be visible to other users, and find trending topics or browse general topics like sports, news, and entertainment. Users also can stream live video into their feed.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (296 ):
Kids say (526 ):

This network can be great for keeping in touch with friends or keeping up with what's going on in the world, but between mature content and potentially permanent posts, it's best for older teens. Twitter attracts a lot of web-savvy users, but it isn't really meant for kids. The ability to publicly post anything you want can get kids in trouble if they say something in the heat of the moment. And even if they delete a tweet, it doesn't always disappear immediately. The service's location-sharing features also make it too easy for kids to post their whereabouts, which can lead to face-to-face meet-ups with strangers. Finally, some tweets in the site's Trending section sound like plugs for various TV shows, and Twitter allows kids to receive tweets directly from celebrities they admire, such as sports stars, actors, and musicians. These messages can be extremely influential to impressionable minds (and are very often promoting products the celeb is getting paid to promote). It's also not that hard to find sexually explicit content, depending on your searches and who you follow. And also, comments on Twitter can be notoriously harsh and abusive if you have a public account. So, if teens use it to keep up with current events, content they love, or information they're interested in, it can be a great resource. Parents just need to keep an eye on privacy settings and your kid's activity on the platform.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what's safe to post and what's not (for example, "prnts gone, party @ 123 main st tonite!!") for posts to Twitter and why it's a good idea for teens to limit tweeting to friends. How do you know if you can trust someone enough to make that person a "friend" with access to your private information?

  • Discuss teens' digital footprint and how universities and employers (not to mention friends' parents) might read their tweets and the impression they'll make based on their tweets and retweets.

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