Parents' Guide to

Twitter

By Susan Yudt, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Limited characters, lots of info, lasting online legacy.

Twitter Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

Community Reviews

age 14+

Based on 293 parent reviews

age 18+

Adult only site - not for kids.

For those of us who have filters on our internet to block dangerous content for our kids (and ourselves), this site should not be allowed through your filters. It took about 2 minutes to find adult content on the site. Not the bikini pics, but full nudity. Not just nudity, but videos with the whole sexual act (minus the dating, of course). Even with the filters I employ for my own house, blocking the dangerous keywords, it took about 10 minutes to find seriously adult videos. It was probably staged, but the video that sickened me enough to turn it off was the rape of a sleeping girl. Twitter allowed this stuff. And it's not just some rogue posters making this content available for a couple hours and getting their accounts disabled. The help file written by Twitter gives all kinds of stipulations on what kind of adult content is allowed. The only requirement is that the user who uploads it add a tag that says it's not safe for children, which there were many posts that had no such tag / filter. And the only thing it does is make you click the button that says you want to see it. And what teenage boy doesn't? What grown man wouldn't have the impulse? The administrators of twitter care more about the adult content "artists" than they do about the innocence of children. This site should be behind every adult content block there is. From Google search to the ones that come with the ISPs. Every router should block twitter as an adult site. Cleanbrowsingdns.org should block it. When a government passes a law against obscenity, twitter should make the list of sites to disallow. Of course, it's possible to have an account that doesn't show the adult stuff. You could follow Trump and be safe. I'm sure that most of your friends will not be posting those things. But unlike Facebook, you have to actively avoid exploring the site. Unlike Instagram, you can't just leave your kids alone with the program. It's more like a start up social media company who can't find the money to pay people to remove adult content. Like MeWe, but even they have gotten better in the last couple years. They require admin approval for sites with adult content. Twitter spreads it around for all to see. No approval. No firewall. No filters. No consequences. Horrible site.

This title has:

Too much sex
5 people found this helpful.
age 18+

Cesspool of sexual deviancy, pedophilia and not at all a place for kids.

Not only is it forbidden for kids under 13 to use this site, its for good reason. Twitter is extremely toxic, studies show it is damaging to mental health, and its filled with porn, creeps, drug addicts and violent individuals who would love nothing more than a child to reveal their personal information. Numerous children have been kidnapped, abused, or driven to suicide as a result of using sites like this. Please keep your children off social media. I've had predators come after my own kids, just glad I taught them how to keep their personal info private.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much consumerism
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
1 person found this helpful.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (293):
Kids say (521):

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.

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