By shiva shankar
Twitter is pretty awesome and everyone needs it in their
lives. But like with any technology, there are safety concerns,
privacy concerns, kids’ security concerns, and so on. Twitter has launched a
new initiative to address all these matters.
Twitter Safety Center is a
comprehensive resource built by the social network to address all of the ways
its users are protected, as well as how teens, parents and teachers can use the
tools better. You can access the Safety Center at any time by visiting safety.twitter.com.
Tools
Twitter has introduced several tools over the years which have
made it a stronger app than before. But you’ve probably missed some of these.
It’s best to visit the Tools section of Safety Center to find out what these are.
For example, you could learn of the Mute feature
and clean up your timeline with a game of Mute, Block or Unfollow.
And Twitter will also keep you safe by recommending how to set a password and
switching on two-factor authentication, which everyone should use.
All of these are important factors to stay safe on Twitter.
You can
also find out what information about yourself you are sharing on Twitter, and
opt out of things like being discovered by your email address, or being wrongly
tagged in photos.
Policies
Even if you are a long-time Twitter user, I’d recommend going
through the policies section once to discover what Twitter stands for today,
how it deals with abusive users, and so on.
For example, even though I’m an
active Twitter user, I had no idea that you can report a user who you think is at
risk of self-harm or suicide.
The policies section also carefully
identifies what Twitter sees as spam, private information, or abuse and
harassment. These are important to know because online harassment for women is a serious issue, so it’s good to
know what you are allowed to report. Remember, this is an area where free
speech, one of the principles of the social network, goes up against hate
speech, an oft-debated topic. To know how Twitter differentiates between the
two is half the battle.
Twitter has also published an Enforcement
section to guide you through the process of what happens when
you file a report, how the social network will respond from their end, and the
possible outcomes. Again, important information since some of these can be
legal matters and it’s best to be prepared.
Teens, Families and
Educators
In an important step, the Safety Center outlines best practices
and guidelines for teenagers, parents, and educators on how to deal with
problems.
Teens: Twitter
wants to focus on being a positive experience for teens, so it emphasizes what
is okay and what isn’t. More importantly, there’s an entire section dedicated
to dealing with bullies. While adults can learn how to handle bullying
tweets like celebrities do, it’s far different when you’re in school and have to
face your online bully every day. This section should be mandatory reading for
any teenager using the social network.
Parents/Families: As
a parent, you want to ensure your child’s virtual world is as safe as the
physical world you protect them in. It’s debatable whether
you should spy on your kids, but it’s
important to recognize that for them, virtual relationships are as real as
those in the real world. Twitter does a good job of explaining to families what
place the social network has in the lives of their loved ones. Importantly, it
has three sections everyone should read—how to teach critical thinking and
build media literacy, and even use online safety to connect with your kids.
Educators: Teachers and tutors can use
Twitter in amazing ways, but it’s important to remember that it’s more difficult to
monitor your students’ online activities. In fact, online lives and offline
lives tend to overlap for students, and Safety Center helps educators
understand how that happens, what they can do about it, and how they can build
their students to be ready for adulthood.
When to Ask the
Experts
Twitter and the law is a confusing
subject, which differs based on the country you live in, the content of a
tweet, and several other factors. To their credit, Safety Center is trying to
help you understand when to report violations to Twitter by
understanding the rules.
The Safety Center also has the guidelines for law enforcement, which can help you
better understand when to call in the authorities and take the matter out of
Twitter’s hands. This also includes how Twitter complies with the authorities
on several matters, such as when it will hand over your private information to
the authorities, what level it will go to, and so on. If you care about your
privacy, spend some time understanding the rules here.
The Best Ways to
Protect Yourself Online
Twitter’s new Safety Center is
similar to Google’s
new My Account page to understand the privacy and security implications of
using the service. And it’s important to know these. After all, just like you
should be well-versed with the basic laws and customs of a place you live in,
the same applies to a virtual place you spend a lot of time in.
What else do you think Twitter can do to make it easier to protect
yourself and safeguard your loved ones online?
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