Twitter to warn users about naughty pics and videos

It can be pretty embarrassing — or even traumatizing — to follow an image or video link in a tweet only to discover that it leads to obscene content. Thankfully Twitter is intending to prevent such awkward incidents by warning users about "possibly sensitive" items.

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Twitter has just shared the news about this feature with developers and provided them with instructions about how they can incorporate it in their tools. For now, things are just in an "initial testing phase," but both users and developers will eventually be able to fully take advantage of the feature.

Basically, you'll able to flag "possibly sensitive content" on your own and other users' tweets in order to trigger a warning for anyone else who might try to view the linked image or video. In theory, this should help keep everyone's eyes unviolated. (You can already flag content, but that there is no warning message which is triggered at this point.)

While this change doesn't sound like it will be earth-shattering, it certainly has the potential to prevent us from opening up inappropriate images while our bosses are hovering behind us or when young eyes are watching. Unfortunately there is no word on when the warning messages will first begin showing up, so we'll have to keep being careful for now.

For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

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Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook. Oh, and she can be found on Google+, too.