So I recently had to make a call to a relative regarding his son's Twitter account because I had come across some pretty disturbing material on the 15-year old's feed. When my relative answered the phone I asked, "Have you ever checked (his) Twitter feed?" Not surprisingly, my relative responded, "never."
image via - https://www.expertbail.com
At this point, I went on to describe a few of the things that I had seen and told my relative about an easy way to monitor his son on Twitter without having to go through the process of signing up for an account. In fact, you can use this trick whether you have the newest smartphone or an old-school flip phone. Just text on followed by the Twitter name of the account you want to follow to the number 40404 (See the example below). If you ever want to stop getting the messages you can text off followed by the Twitter name to 40404.
I have written about this use of Twitter before as a messaging service for text alerts.
cross-posted at www.patrickmlarkin.com
Patrick Larkin is the Assistant Superintendent for Learning of Burlington Public Schools in Burlington, MA and the former principal of Burlington High. He blogs about education at www.patrickmlarkin.com.
