I just found that my 10 yo DS has a Twitter account- WWYD?

[Anonymous]

Opened my laptop to find it.. nothing horrible, but oh my gosh, within 1 week of opening the account, he has 32 Tweets, and following over 200 feeds. 10 years old- begged for his own device and I told him in our house, our rule is kids don't need their own devices until middle school. All sports feeds followed, all innocent stuff but I am shocked he opened it without asking permission. Our kids don't have their own devices but can use our tablets, laptops, etc on the weekends to play games, etc. We already had a conversation that kids under the age of 18 aren't allowed to have a gmail account. He knows the boundaries but decided to open a Twitter account? WWYD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Opened my laptop to find it.. nothing horrible, but oh my gosh, within 1 week of opening the account, he has 32 Tweets, and following over 200 feeds. 10 years old- begged for his own device and I told him in our house, our rule is kids don't need their own devices until middle school. All sports feeds followed, all innocent stuff but I am shocked he opened it without asking permission. Our kids don't have their own devices but can use our tablets, laptops, etc on the weekends to play games, etc. We already had a conversation that kids under the age of 18 aren't allowed to have a gmail account. He knows the boundaries but decided to open a Twitter account? WWYD?

Well, did you know he had an email account?

[Anonymous]

Did you explicitly tell him no Twitter? Or just no gmail? I can totally see my kid assuming those were different, and doing it innocently.

I'd just shut it down and say "sorry bud, not til you are 13. You are not allowed to open "any" new accounts of "any" kind on line without my permission."

[Anonymous]

Shut it down and go back over the rules with him.

[Anonymous]

No, I didn't know he had an email account. I think he innocently set up the Twitter, but down deep inside, he knew I wouldn't have approved. Hindsight is 50/50- now I know why he's been more sneaky trying to get my iphone or any device on weekdays..

[Anonymous]

Nothing. My DD is 12 and has an Instagram account that she's had since late 12. Today she posted a video of her skating on a penny board, and a pic of her wearing cat ears. I follow her on Instagram. I've checked her private messages.

If she asked for a Twitter account I'd say yes, as long as I can follow her (I'd block her from mine) and she gives me the password so I can see her direct messages.

If you don't want him to have a Twitter account though, then tell him and have him delete it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shut it down and go back over the rules with him.

This. Plus, you do know that at MCPS kids use Chrome Books and get gmail accounts well before they hit 18.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shut it down and go back over the rules with him.

This. Plus, you do know that at MCPS kids use Chrome Books and get gmail accounts well before they hit 18.

[Anonymous]

OP here, there's more-- now looking at the times/dates of tweets, it's almost always during school hours. today alone 5 tweets between 1:30 - 2:30 pm. Tweets last week at 9am. So fast, every opportunity on a device, he reads sports feeds and tweets... geeezzz

[Anonymous]

You know you can and should monitor his Internet use more closely. I'd have a talk with the school people. That's unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like he's lost the privilege of having accounts and you need to let school know he's doing this at school.

[Anonymous]

Any idea what class/activity he's in at 9 am or 1:30-2:30? It takes seconds to type out a tweet. Chances are he's in a computer lab or library or something (or has a class where they use ipads or something), he quickly logs on and tweets. I'm kind of surprised school computers don't block social media -- unless he has a friend with a smart phone who lets him borrow it?!

[Anonymous]

Wow. Ten is so young for that.
What's that book,
"All Grown Up and Nowhere to Go".

[Anonymous]

If it was my kid? I'd delete the account and confiscate his phone. We have rules.

[Anonymous]

I would check TOS very carefully; if (as I suspect) he has violated those then without question I would delete the account and make clear he was not allowed another until I permitted it, which would not be until he meets the age requirement *at a minimum*. We don't lie to get entertainment-related things we just happen to want, and we don't sign our name to false things that could constitute legal agreements.

The rest would depend on exactly what our family rules were as had been previously made clear to him . I do not hold my kids accountable to standards they aren't aware of or haven't had significant opportunity to discuss, so if there hadn't been an explicit rule to this point all I would do is have a discussion where I laid down a few that I expected to be followed.

Since it's all innocent stuff it wouldn't be much of a problem in our home unless TOS were violated. If the account were obtained in a deceptive way by sneaking around our established rules, the deceptive behavior would be a problem but the account itself would not be unless a lie had been necessary to set it up.

I grant my kids email access on an account configured with me as owner/administrator at age 8.5, so we would have already had the internet safety and permanency discussion but we would have a refresher. I would also let him know if and how I intended to monitor his account activity; if he did not consent to this then as a minor whose online behavior was my responsibility his only choice would be to cease posting on the account.


As long as grades are all A's and the device is NEVER a source of disciplinary problems at school, I wouldn't mind his use of it during the school day, honestly. I remember school; kids end up with plenty of free time so who knows what he was meant to be doing at the time and I don't mind any ethical way he chooses to use his spare time. If there are any grades below an A, then that indicates a need for greater focus and effort in that area so school time shouldn't be spent on the device except for academic purposes until the situation is remedied, and obviously getting into trouble with the device would be unacceptable. Other than that, as long as he's posting nothing risky to his own safety or harmful to someone else, as long as all conditions above are met I would let him do as he liked.