My son is finding out about the old saying "what goes on the internet, stays on the internet".

Back in 2012 my oldest son created a Twitter account. He was 15 at the time and Twitter was all the rage with the high school kids. When he created the account he entered the wrong email address, it didn't matter because Twitter would also link your account to your phone number. Fast forward 2 years and he gets a new phone number and could no longer log into his Twitter... So he creates a 2nd Twitter account and uses that until he leaves on his mission.

When he gets home from his mission he looks back at some of the things he posted on twitter (both accounts) and is embarrassed. Its nothing bad, just stupid kids doing stupid things, but he decides to delete the Twitter accounts. The problem is... He doesn't have access to that first account.

We've spent the last three years trying to get access to that old twitter account so he can delete it.

The password reset function will either text the reset info to the linked phone number (that we don't own anymore), or it will email the link (to an email address that doesn't exist).

I own the domain he should have used for the email.. but it is one letter short. It should be something like kid@mydomain.com.. instead it shows k●●@m●●●●●n.com. I've actually purchased 4 or 5 domains that he may have entered and forwarded emails to the correct domain, but none seem to be work.

We've opened up tickets with Twitter, but because we don't know the exact email or have the old phone number they won't help.

We've opened up fraud/impersonation issues with twitter. Saying somebody has been using his pictures without his permission. We got farther with this approach... We had to send over verification of ID with valid photos (drivers license, passports.. etc). After a few weeks, Twitter came back and said they couldn't find any harmful or proof of wrongdoing with any of the posts/pictures. And that if we want access to the account we can use the password reset features (back to square one).

My son asked me to give it another attempt this past week when the father of the girl he's gotten serious with looked him up online... because this old twitter account is @firstlastname it was one fo the first things to come up. The girl's dad then gave him the "you seem to have a wild past.. what are your intentions with my daughter" talk 🙂

It's a long shot... but does anybody have any ideas we can try to get this account deleted?

Also.. remind your kids "What goes on the internet... stays on the internet!"