Coronavirus: Staying safe and informed on Twitter

By Secuneus Tech Blogs March 20, 2021

Internet Safety on Twitter

Twitter is a giant among social networks. It is a social networking and microblogging site where users post ‘tweets’ that are 140 characters long and can include images or videos. There are a range of safety features available on the service. The ease of use and rapid-fire element makes it a handy communication tool for anyone who wants to keep in touch with friends or associates. But while Twitter can be a great place to hang out online, the site has an anything-goes nature that makes it a potential threat to teens and younger children. When it comes to Internet safety for kids, popular social media channels like this need to be part of the conversation. The following tips should be enforced by parents who want to make sure their children are as safe as possible when socializing on Twitter.

Twitter allows users to connect with anyone in the world, but it has also become a dangerous place filled with harassment and abuse. People have been targeted by coordinated harassment campaigns that can involve anything from threats and spamming to account hacks and worse. Twitter has been criticized for not acting fast enough to remove harassers from its platform, and in many cases, allowing abuse to flourish.

In recent months, Twitter has started testing many new features to change the way people interact on the platform. Some, like stopping people from sharing an article they have not read, may be helpful. Others, like the ability to turn off comments or send voice tweets, promise to introduce new issues instead of solving the current ones.

Safety advice

Tips for Staying Safe and Secure on Twitter

1. Be Smart With Passwords

Twitter accounts are hacked all the time. Once hackers are inside, they can gain easy access to personal information and the ability to post messages on behalf of the victimized user. To prevent an intrusion, passwords should be a mix of letters and numbers, at least six characters in length, and they should be never shared with others. Consider getting a password manager to not only store passwords and personal data in a secure, encrypted database but to also help generate random, strong passwords.

2. Configure Privacy Settings

Twitter has a built-in search engine that allows user to comb the network for tweets. That means anything you post can pop up in one of these searches. By enabling the “Protect My Tweets” option, users can make sure these posts stay off-limits to search queries and are only seen by approved users.

3. Don’t Share Personal Information

There could be anyone lurking behind any given social media profile. A hacker. An identity thief. A predator. For this reason, kids should be instructed to never share any personal information that could potentially reveal their identity or location when interacting on Twitter. This goes for profile information as well as private photos and videos.

4. Tweet Wisely

A seemingly harmless tweet can inflict a lot of damage when it insults someone or puts someone in danger. This is often the case even when the message is later deleted. Parents need to help their children understand the power of these messages and the importance of thinking before tapping that “Tweet” button.

5. Don’t Befriend Strangers

Social media offers an exciting way to connect with new people, but it is also a haven for creeps looking to manipulate the unknowing behind the mask of anonymity. Parents would be wise to enforce a policy that restricts their children to only following and communicating with people they know. This tip not only ensures Internet safety for kids, but protection offline as well.

6. Approach Links with Caution

Tweets not only contain punchy words of wisdom, but links to images, videos, and other content. Because Twitter members often use link-shortening tools to maximize character usage, the source of these links can be difficult to identify. Bottom line — links could lead users to rogue sites harboring malware, phishing scams and other security threats, so they should be approached with extreme caution.

7. Deactivate tweet location

Although you can send tweets along with the destination you are tweeting from, sharing your location can be extremely dangerous. Unwanted people may have access to your home address or which hotel you are staying in on vacation.

To deactivate tweet location, you can tap on “Privacy and safety” and uncheck or switch off “Tweet location”. On the mobile app, this will be “Precise location”.

8. Control photo tagging

Though it has been used as a means to share experiences, harassers have taken the liberty to misuse its well-intended purpose. To avoid from getting spammed, you can access “Settings and privacy” and click the tab “Privacy and safety.” There, you would be allowed to control who is allowed to tag you in photos when you select “Photo tagging.”

9. Shut down your Direct Messages

By 2015, Twitter had allowed users to send Direct Messages (DMs) to anyone, even the people who don’t follow you back. To prevent this from happening, you can access “Direct Messages” under “Privacy and safety” and banning just anyone from sending you DMs as well as to add you in random group chats.

10. Reporting accounts

You have the upper hand in reporting accounts you feel have been misusing their Twitter abusively. In doing so, one must access the said account’s profile page or tweet, click on the drop-down menu, and select “Report tweet” and type in the reason why you find the contents of this page to be offensive and/or abusive. Twitter will assess the situation and based on the information, will decide ultimately whether or not to ban the account.