All kinds of links fly around Twitter regularly. Many of these links are legitimate blog links or other story links. Sometimes, a link sent in your direction may contain offensive material or may even contain a virus that will harm your computer. For the most part, using common sense before clicking on any link sent through Twitter is a good idea.

But sometimes, it’s not possible to discern a quality link from a spam link. This is especially true when younger users log onto Twitter accounts. In order to protect innocent eyes and ears, Twitter will soon make it possible for users to flag certain links. Once flagged, a link will contain a warning that clicking on the link may lead users to offensive material.

The Good and the Bad

For obvious reasons, allowing parents to control tweets is a good idea. On the flip side, some links may be flagged even though these links are not offensive. It all boils down to who does the flagging and who determine what types of links will insult certain users. Twitter recently stated that the company does not intend to monitor tweets, but that this flagging option is necessary.

Parents all across the world are happy to hear about the new feature, since, up until this point, controlling tweets was very hard to do. In fact, users have been asking for some form of control over links for awhile now. Twitter has decided to listen to this concern, and Twitter developers are currently working on making Twitter a better place.

The End of Spam

If you’ve ever had a random link sent your way, you know how annoying Twitter spam can be. What’s worse is that some spammers have short copy down to a science. Often, dangerous links are accompanied by a quick word, note, or some other form of copy that looks legitimate. Of course, clicking on these links is a bad idea, though sometimes it’s too late.

Will the new Twitter flagging button bring an end to spam? Maybe. While someone still has to click on a link in order to flag it, others may be prevented from opening up a dangerous of offensive website. While the new feature is not up and running as of this writing, Twitter does hope to install the new feature sometime soon.

In the Meantime

To protect yourself from any offensive tweets, make sure you know who’s sending you a link. If you simply see a Twitter user name followed by a link, think twice before clicking. You can also look around to see whether or not other people are interacting with the person who sent you the original link. If a sender does not have any conversations going, it is possible that this person is really a spammer.

In most instances, links sent through Twitter are legitimate. If you come across a spammer, you can alert Twitter. The company usually warns anyone who’s acting under a false name or sending out dangerous links. Twitter can be a bit of a jungle, but the company’s decision to allow users to flag certain links is a great idea.