Twitter is quite the outlet for expression. Condensing a thought into a short sentence is a challenge. As such, parents have to be concerned about what their tweens are saying on their Twitter accounts. Just like Facebook or any other social media outlet, tweens have just as much potential to get into trouble. Worse, they often don’t realize exactly what those dangers are. Does this mean that they can’t have a Twitter account? It is up to you to determine this. But you need to be aware of what goes on in the Twitter sphere. If you do allow it, then make sure you have things like their account password, so you can monitor exactly what is being said. However, it should be noted that once they tweet something, the message are instantaneously sent. This means that if they tweet an inappropriate message, it turns into a clean-up job for parents and the message itself might never be actually erased.
Retweeting
About 90% of things being tweeted about are pretty harmless. But if parents learned anything from the Steubenville rape case, there was a tweeting frenzy that is letting the Attorney General know exactly who knew what and when. Most of that information was spread through Twitter. So while retweeting a message can get your tween into trouble. Because the act of retweeting something means they knew about it. If you don’t know exactly what retweeting is, consider it like a rumor that spreads from mouth to mouth. Your tween simply passes on a message, the same message that someone else wrote through their account.
Personal Information
Twitter also provides another temptation to your tween. It is tempting for them to put their personal information out there such as where they will be, what time they are going to be there, what they are doing at the moment, and other stuff like that. While this appears to be harmless, it is in fact spreading personal information. Since you don’t know the traits of every follower, this information can be seen by people who have no business seeing it. Thus, tweeting such seemingly mundane details is something you and your tween need to discuss. This type of information isn’t something they should be sharing even if you know every single one of their followers.
Twerking
Twerking is probably something you haven’t heard of it. It is a dance that is an extreme version of the booty shake. If your tween is twittering about twerking, you should be automatically on guard. It is a dance movement that will have child predators drooling. It is not something you want your tween posting on Twitter or retweeting about. As cute as dance movements can be, you need to be aware of terms like these. It sounds harmless enough until the video depicting your tween becomes viral.
There are social pitfalls for tweens with a Twitter account. Messages are instantaneous and can’t be erased. Thus, your tween can find trouble even though the messages themselves are short.