Twitter for Children is a subject that is actually getting much attention nowadays. Although it is stated in Twitter’s terms of service that you must be 13 years of age to use the site, there is no actual checks in place to bar out those below 13 years old from accessing the site. Twitter’s sign up process doesn’t even require you to provide a date of birth. This is an issue that has been brought up many times over, especially since the debates over whether social networking sites in general should be freely used by children.
These debates have come from the arising concerns over how social networking sites could provide children access to pornography sites and other such undesirable content. Twitter has been taking the brunt of this due to its popularity and its lack of policing to filter out and prevent malicious content not suitable for children. Some people claim that Twitter must either come up with a system to keep the children out or a system to keep the malicious content out. Others would demand that Twitter do both.
A number of neurological experts have expressed their distress over children who make constant use of social networking sites would end up having increasingly short attention spans. They would even go as far as claiming that these things will lead to children being less tolerant and understanding of others. Defenders are quick to point out though that social networking has led to increased social interaction among kids while making them easily adapt to new technology.
There is also worry over how Twitter and other social networking sites could lead or help lead to a culture of instant gratification and self-absorption. A child having an account would have a page that is all about them and be able to view all the attention they get from their friends. This, they say, would lead to kids thinking that world revolves around them. Others would argue though that children would actually be more relationship-oriented, empathetic and more thoughtful of others. They would be more aware of others’ birthdays and significant events that concern their friends or family and will actually keep these things in mind since they are most usually reminded by their social networking site page.
The critics tend to fail to see that Twitter and other social networking sites actually make for more sociable kids and make them more peer-based. Young people will be learning and teaching and receiving feedback from their social peers which would do wonders in the speed of their learning. Also, these kids would more easily nurture longer term friendships with the ability to easily keep in touch with friends that they may not even get to see personally anymore.
Twitter for Children is not necessarily good or bad. The child’s experience in twitter may positively or negatively influence him. What would matter most is that they be supervised and guided by parents to ensure that they enjoy the benefits of Twitter (or other social networking sites) while protecting your children from undesirable/harmful influence. It is the parents’ responsibility to make the Twitter for Children experience a largely positive one.
