If you know anything about Twitter, you probably know that one of the issues the site has always had is policing its global community with consistency. Too often someone complains that they’ve been harassed on the site but they don’t see anything come of it. Still, the company is making progress.
Twitter hopes to further that progress by launching a “Safety Center,” which aims to put all of the resources for online safety in one easy-to-find spot: http://safety.twitter.com. Some of the resources are based on initiatives that the company has already kicked off, but it was really difficult to find detailed information about them.
What makes this a somewhat useful resource is that Twitter breaks out the available help into categories based on age group. However, I find it highly unlikely that Twitter can engage teenagers with content that reads like this:
Twitter is a thrilling place for teens. You can follow celebrities close enough to step on their digital heels. You can be the first of your friends to make a gif that goes viral.
Part of this is “it’s the thought that counts” (because Twitter does honestly care); the other part is that this is a “cover-your-ass” for Twitter in case of legal action.
At least little vignettes like this now have a permanent home:
Head of Global Trust & Safety Outreach, Public Policy, Patricia Cartes, wrote in a blog post today:
This resource is a result of our work with online safety experts who continuously help us to promote good digital citizenship.
Online safety isn’t all about harassment, though. Twitter wants you to know how to pick a powerful password and utilize things like two-step verification.
At the end of the day, though, safety content is good, but following through on actually making the product safer is better.