Kids and Twitter

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Permalink Reply by Sheryl Loch on February 28, 2009 at 11:21am

My daughter is now 14 & has been on Twitter about a year. She has had a few weirdo's follow her but, it's no more than anywhere else. She is very well versed in being online & pretty much knows what to look for to see if a person is scum. She looks at their profile & decides if she wants to follow, ignore, or block.

She started online at 10 y/o because we owned forums. This was a huge help so, she learned that everyone is not who they say they are & some just need to be avoided. She has also been on social networking sites for years.

You should let your kids learn how to be safe online. If you do not start now then they will still not have the knowledge in 10 years. There is nothing online that is not right down your street. Kids need supervision and someone to show them what to watch out for. Tell them what they CAN NOT post. Stick to the rules that you lay down.

The online world can be of such a benefit to kids. Cait has learned that everyone all over the world is just like us. They may have a few different beliefs but, they have families, pets, friends...and just want to be happy. It breaks the barriers of different cultures.

Maybe your kids could do Twitter as their pet. Don't laugh! The critters (dogs, cats, gerbils, horses...) are mostly fun. This way they can tweet what they think their pet would say. No one would need to know they are a kid, where they are from, school zone, ....
Check out a couple of dogs Zed & the newest puppy Zoie. They don't get to tweet a whole lot because they can only use the computers when someone else is not on them. ;)

Most of the critters on Twitter send pet info (or stories on their blog) & twit pics of themselves. Tell the kids they can not click on any link until you feel safe about that person or critter.

Maybe the little one could do a 'Guest Tweet' on your account. Post her favorite book of the day or a blurp about a game....

Hope this helps,
Sheryl Loch

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Permalink Reply by Nicki Laycoax on February 28, 2009 at 2:02pm

Sheryl,

Those are great tips! I think the pet accounts would be fun for them. Thank you for your thoughts!

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Shelley on March 1, 2009 at 3:07am

My daughter (11 6/12) thinks I tweet, facebook etc way too much. She likes to see the photos but doesn't understand why I do the networking. I've learned so much from twitter and the like although I don't have 1000 followers and am not sure I'd like to. I'm not sure I'd let my daughter twitter. she's doing fine having graduated from club penguin to moshi monsters - I'll let her hang in those environments for a while yet.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Cottle on March 2, 2009 at 4:52am

My 6 yr old son has asked if he can have a "Tweeter page".. like mine and Daddy's. He is absolutely too young.

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Permalink Reply by MariaD on March 2, 2009 at 5:15am

I invite my kid into all social spaces I visit myself. That includes blogs, facebook and linkedin, twitter, nings, massively multi-user games and more. It is my firm belief that children should grow up beside their parents. Just like I took my four year old to international conferences when I went, or I take her now, at ten, to my business meetings, I also welcome her to the internet communities.

I would hate for my kid to be one of too many "digital orphans" I see around the web. Digital orphans are kids and teens whose parents either distance themselves from parenting online, or are shut off by kids who lost all trust due to the parents' earlier actions.

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Permalink Reply by Donna Cope Sams on March 2, 2009 at 6:41am

My son is 3 and he has a twitter account. It is set up so that only our family can view it. He has a relatives all over the country, from WA to FL to TN. Whenever he says something particularly cute or funny or we want to send a picture instantly to everyone, we send out a quick tweet. It's an easy way to keep him in touch with his distant family. Of course, he doesn't use it by himself, but as he gets older, I'm sure he will. We will keep the security settings on it so only our family can see it. He also has a blog. He loves to tell stories and is learning to read and write, so I started one for him. You can check it out if you'd like. www.storytimewithnic.blogspot.com.

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Permalink Reply by Sheryl Loch on March 2, 2009 at 3:20pm

My daughter has 2 blogs that she writes herself, participates on several social sites (some are NING), she also does some very large forums. This means that she has to write, research, and sometimes even sound intelligent. I say sometime sound intelligent because she does have a few places that the kids talk in txt & I have to Google to see what they are saying. LOL!

She also took the 30 Day Challenge with Ed Dale to learn marketing, networking, & keyword research...So most of her online time is doing educational things.

She has a skype list that consist of people all over the world (these are approved people). If she wants to know about a certain cultural, happening, belief, religion...she has some one to call that actually lives the type of life (in question) & can give an educated answer.

As far as innocence - As soon as your child is born you start teaching them to be weary of others. Stranger Danger! I firmly believe that the child molester, drug pusher, thief...is also in your back yard. Look at the schools that have arrested employees for these things, churches, even police & firemen can be a threat. And these are people we allow our kids to be around everyday, we may even tell our kids to respect them. The thought of a creep following us home from the store to see where we live scares me as much or more than a person online.

To think that because you do not tell your kids about sex, drinking, drugs, or do not use foul language will mean that they will not learn it, is false hope. I prefer to be the one to tell them how, what, when...not some kid at school that heard it from some kid, that heard it from a brother....I have heard some 2nd graders that would make you blush.

You MUST supervise!
You MUST lay down rules...
To have your kids online is like anything else - you have to take the time to educate, monitor, help them...How you do this will depend on your child's maturity level not just age in years.

I know that how I have let Cait do things online may not be the most popular but, it works for us.
Sheryl Loch

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Permalink Reply by Nicki Laycoax on March 3, 2009 at 12:24pm

I thank everyone for your responses. Please keep them coming! These are some really great points!

I am really feeling Sheryl's approach to kids online. I've given mine Gmail accounts, but still won't let them use Facebook or MySpace. I don't feel the educational benefit from those two platforms. One of the main reasons I'm thinking about Twitter, is that I learn so much every day from my Tweeple. I think that it would be great for them to be in the know of the now via the Twitter stream. It's very rare that there is anything that comes across that I have to block the kids' eyes from. It's generally adults that are active, yet most are very respectful, and rarely swear. I love it!

Sheryl Loch said:

My daughter has 2 blogs that she writes herself, participates on several social sites (some are NING), she also does some very large forums. This means that she has to write, research, and sometimes even sound intelligent. I say sometime sound intelligent because she does have a few places that the kids talk in txt & I have to Google to see what they are saying. LOL!

She also took the 30 Day Challenge with Ed Dale to learn marketing, networking, & keyword research...So most of her online time is doing educational things.

She has a skype list that consist of people all over the world (these are approved people). If she wants to know about a certain cultural, happening, belief, religion...she has some one to call that actually lives the type of life (in question) & can give an educated answer.

As far as innocence - As soon as your child is born you start teaching them to be weary of others. Stranger Danger! I firmly believe that the child molester, drug pusher, thief...is also in your back yard. Look at the schools that have arrested employees for these things, churches, even police & firemen can be a threat. And these are people we allow our kids to be around everyday, we may even tell our kids to respect them. The thought of a creep following us home from the store to see where we live scares me as much or more than a person online.

To think that because you do not tell your kids about sex, drinking, drugs, or do not use foul language will mean that they will not learn it, is false hope. I prefer to be the one to tell them how, what, when...not some kid at school that heard it from some kid, that heard it from a brother....I have heard some 2nd graders that would make you blush.

You MUST supervise!
You MUST lay down rules...
To have your kids online is like anything else - you have to take the time to educate, monitor, help them...How you do this will depend on your child's maturity level not just age in years.

I know that how I have let Cait do things online may not be the most popular but, it works for us.
Sheryl Loch

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Permalink Reply by Tracie on March 4, 2009 at 5:48pm

I am in a unique situation..I am a college student so I have a lot of friends on facebook, my daughter is 17 and we both have each other as friends on all social networking sites including twitter...i monitor her to make sure everything is cool... there has been a few times in the past where she has pulled the old "open another account that mom doesn't know about".... well surprise! thought i didn't know, did you...=) After disabling her additional accounts on a couple of occasions she finally gave up.

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