A guide for families with key information about ‘X’, including the age rating, key terminology, risks and instructions for enabling parental controls and safety settings.
Contents
How X works
X is a microblogging social media platform. Registered users can create their own posts and repost other people’s. Unregistered users can read other people’s posts on a web browser. Users are recommended other accounts to follow based on their interests. If they choose to follow other users, they will see their posts in their feed.
Minimum age requirements
Users must be aged at least 13 to create an account. Users who enter a date of birth that puts them under the age of 18 will be defaulted to ‘protected posts’. This means that they can only be messaged by accounts they follow and their posts can only be viewed by their followers.
Once a user has entered an age under 18, they cannot change it. However, there is no verification to check that the date of birth entered while creating an account is correct. You should supervise your child while they setup their X account to ensure they enter their real age.
Features and terms
Communities
Groups built around specific interests and topics that users can join.
Community Notes
Notes written by users in response to a post suspected to spread disinformation. These notes often help provide additional context or correct an untrue post that is promoted as a fact.
Direct Messaging
A feature for users to have private conversations with other users.
For you
Popular topics and news stories the X algorithms think a user might be interested in are offered in the ‘For you’ section.
Grok
An AI chatbot built into the X platform. Grok can create images, write stories, create computer codes, or chat with users.
Post
A post can contain up to 280 characters of text, images, videos, audio files or GIFs.
Repost
If somebody reposts, it means that they’ve shared someone else’s post to their profile. They can add their own comments to a repost.
Spaces
Spaces allow users to have live audio conversations with each other. Spaces are publicly accessible by anyone, and any user can join as a listener.
Trending
Trending topics on X can be found in the ‘Trending’ section.
Voice Messages
Users can send voice messages to others.
X Premium
Any user can subscribe to X Premium, which will add a blue tick to their profile. This blue tick shows the user’s subscription. It does not mean the account has been verified as authentic.
Managing risks
Inappropriate contact and content
X is a social media platform, meaning content on it is user-generated. With relatively little moderation, young people can come across violent and sexual media and language. They can also be privately messaged by other users through the direct messaging feature.
There are actions you can take to mitigate this risk.
Adjust settings
You can set up parental controls to restrict your child from viewing videos shared by users that your child does not follow. This reduces the chances of them seeing inappropriate content. In account settings, you can also prevent sensitive content from being shown on your child’s feed and restrict direct messaging.
Manage algorithm
Encourage your child to follow accounts that post positive content and show them how to prevent similar content appearing in their feed in future by marking inappropriate posts as ‘Not interested in this post’.
Talk about online life
Regularly discuss your child’s digital life to learn what they see and who they interact with. Teach them to think critically about the information they see, and make sure they know what is and isn’t ok to share on X. Ensure they know they can come to you if anything makes them uncomfortable.
Utilise blocking and reporting tools
Empower your child to use blocking and reporting tools. This prevents further exposure to the harm and can help make the platform safer.
Alert police
If you suspect a user is attempting to groom your child, you should screenshot the evidence and report it to the police.
Excessive screen time
X’s endless scrolling design means new content is always available, and this can cause users to spend excessive amounts of time on the platform.
The following steps can help prevent your child from spending too long on X.
Adjust settings
Using parental controls, you can set daily time limits on your child’s account. Without parental controls, you can set time limits using your child’s in-built device settings.
Agree on limits
Come to an agreement on when and where your child can use X.
Settings to protect your child
If your child uses X, the following settings can help keep them safer.
Hide sensitive content
On your child’s X app, select their profile picture in the top left.
Expand ‘Settings & Support’ and select ‘Settings and privacy’.
Select ‘Privacy and safety’.
Select ‘Content you see’.
Select ‘Sensitive media’.
Select 'Never show this’ on each type of sensitive content.
Restrict messaging
On your child’s X app, select their profile picture in the top left.
Expand ‘Settings & Support’ and select ‘Settings and privacy’.
Select ‘Privacy and safety’.
Select ‘Messages settings’.
In these settings you can decide who can message your child and disable calls.
Blocking and reporting tools
Block a user
On a post from the user you wish to block, select the 3 vertical dots.
Select ‘Block’.
Select ‘Block’ again to confirm.
Report a user
On the profile of the user you wish to block, select the 3 vertical dots in the top right.
Select ‘Report’ from the dropdown menu.
Choose the reason for the report from the options.
Select ‘Submit’ to complete the report.
Report a post
On the post you wish to report, select the 3 vertical dots.
Select ‘Report post’.
Choose the reason for the report from the options.
Select ‘Submit’ to complete the report.