Twitter is fast becoming an urban area online.

When you look carefully in the shadowy areas of any place frequented by the public, you’re likely to find some seedy individuals waiting there to accost innocent wayfarers and rob or molest them.

Similarly the popularity of Twitter has unfortunately created more shadowy places and more prolific shady characters.  So how can you protect you and your children?

Without cordoning off yourself with some crime fighters and security personnel, you can protect yourself by following these safety instructions:

• Your Twitter password should be protected in the manner you would do with your bank password.  People who pose in your guise can easily harm you on the Web.
• Children form a big part of Twitterverse, so there’s a possibility of bullies and predators. Educate your children about the suspicious activities of such individuals and report about anyone who targets children with unsuitable or intimidating tweets.
• Never disclose personal information. If someone unknown to you asks for your name, address, school, and contact information, overlook them and move off.
• Don’t give very detailed information about you on your profile.  Let the people know about you and develop a relationship with you through the tweets, before you want to divulge more about you.
• Don’t be reckless, trying to tease or entice someone. Avoid sending personal photos or suggestive material online.
• Tweet-ups, (i.e. meeting in person) can be excellent when you’re interacting with people who enjoy being together.  However, ensure that you already know whom you’re going to meet, and never try to meet someone if you have no idea about them.
• Be careful whom you’re spending time with.  A common rule is to build relationships first, and then follow those people, and afterwards they shall follow you.
• Photos tell about people. The Twitter users who don’t have profile photos are always to be doubted and should be avoided.  If the profile photo seems to be professionally shot and displaying a girl in bikini, which also should be avoided.  You should try to connect with real people. Be careful of the tweeters who don’t have that basic quality.
• Let your responses be polite and topical, particularly when you don’t know the sender of the message.  Don’t make room for vengeance.
• Don’t click on the links from unknown tweeters, particularly when they don’t indicate the nature of the link.  Probably it could lead to some malware or websites with unsuitable content.
• Mind you, this is the Web and it will be always there.  So when you post some content today, it will remain for a very long time.  So you should think about each tweet carefully.  Parents, children, friends, colleagues and also adversaries can ready your messages.
• If you want to be really safe, your Twitter feed should be private.  Only the people whom you invite to see your tweets will be able to read them.

Above everything, use your common sense on the Web as you would do in real world.

Twitter is a wonderful communication media.  Don’t hesitate to utilize it fully, but adhere to these safety rules, for your perfect enjoyment of this media.