Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General for England and Wales, said that children should receive an education on how to safely use Twitter. The comments came after several high-profile women in the UK received a string of threatening tweets, which forced Twitter to change how it handles abuse on the micro-blogging site. The most famous case was Caroline Criado-Perez, who was sent hundreds of rape threats after successfully campaigning to put novelist Jane Austen on the 10 pound note.
Grieve said: “All you need is a teacher who is inspirational and sensible and you can easily do it and say ‘what are the rules about using social media?’ I think that’s quite an interesting idea.”
But what exactly would youngsters need to know to responsibly use Twitter? Here are four things that all young people should know before they send their first tweet.
1) Scary People Are Online
In the online world, absolutely anyone, anywhere can join in the conversation. Even some unsavory characters who want to use it as forum for abuse and a tool for fraud. Some might just be “trolls” looking to get attention for themselves. Other people might want to deceive you in order to rob you or commit even worse crimes. While some dangerous people can be spotted by performing an online background check, others can completely hide behind the anonymity that the Internet provides. Trust shouldn’t be given too easily to anyone you meet online.
2) Don’t Publicly Over Share
Twitter isn’t like Facebook or Google+, where you can only share what you post to a few people (ideally). Twitter doesn’t really have any privacy settings, so everything that you tweet will be publicly available for everyone who wants to see it. That includes the police, all your future employers, and your dear Grandma Sue. So don’t share something that you wouldn’t feel comfortable announcing to everybody in the world. Once you release something out onto the Internet, it can never be taken back.
[Read also: 5 Twitter Tidbits to Help You Build A Successful Twitter Community]
3) Bullying Online Is Still Bullying
Poking fun of people online might seem more harmless than doing it to someone’s face, but the effects of cyberbullying can be devastating. Cruelty for cruelty’s sake is much more damaging than harmless fun. Particularly in teen years, when people are most eager for their peers’ approval, exclusion, mockery, and shame hurt badly. In more than one case, the targets of persistent online bullying have even killed themselves.
[Read also: How to Protect Children from Cyber Bullying]
4) There Can Be Real World Consequences For What You Say Online
The online world isn’t separate from the real world. Police take threats of violence seriously, whether they are made face-to-face or on Twitter. A single threatening comment might get you placed in handcuffs. You may simply be trying to blow off steam when you make a threatening comment, but the authorities may not see it that way.
5) Protecting Kids
Teens are migrating to Twitter in droves, but many who choose to interact with their peers this way often don’t appreciate the risks and dangers that come with an online presence. If school-age children can really understand the power of a tweet, online communication might be more respectful and less dangerous.
Hi Peter !
All the points that you have mentioned are awesome !
Children should be taught the importance of not sharing their too personal details (like photos, addresses ) on a site like twitter ..they should be shown some examples of people being cheated through twitter . Thanks for sharing the information .
-Pramod
Personally, I think parents play a part in teaching their children how to use social media properly too, not just schools. We just have to be extra careful when it comes to using any social media these days isn’t it? I mean, people actually died because of it? OMG!
I can’t agree with you more.
Those days, we can denied advantages that Internet provided but we have to face a lot of drawbacks. I really angry with people who always want to bully others. It’s really dangerous and in some cases, can kill people.
Thanks for your sharing.
Stephan Wu
You have written a good post regarding teaching students ill effects of twitter , but we must not scare them , we should teach them the benefits as well as drawbacks . Then only they will be easily understand . Not by telling everything negative .
IMHO, in the cutting digital age, social media education really seems necessary and it might be great initiative and would definitely change the perspective. Not only Twitter but also lessons on other platforms are a good options. Tumblr, popular among youths, has lots of weird stuff as well.
Well said! Yeah, lessons should be given on social media as a whole to our youth, not only limited to Twitter!
I am not a great fan of twitter as it doesn’t allow us privacy and control we see in Facebook & Google+ social networks. All of them can harm anybidy equally but fear is worst in twitter because of limited access provided to its user by twitter. However if used sensibly, it can turn things in your favour & you can make the most of it. I am agree with your suggestions mate.
I think these pointers are really very very sensible and everyone using Twitter should keep them in mind. I think cyber-bullying has become a huge issue nowadays and kids often fall prey to it, so it’s really important to be wary.
The main thing we should teach kids about online security, is actually not share too much online publicly. Plus, not to trust strangers toomuch and don’t meet people they know online only in real life – it can be dangerous for them
Hi Peter,
Great post! I agree, with all your points. I personally feel as a parent is my responsibility to teach my kids about Twitter and what is acceptable to say and what is not. This helps me teach them how to be responsible when using all sorts of social media platforms.