Tweets for safety: CPSC joins social networking to get message to the masses

Tweet this: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has joined the social networking world -- joining Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, with a Facebook page on its way.

The move might seem simple for you and me, but is immeasurably more complex when you're working for a government agency. An initiative announced this week by the General Services Administration intended to make government information and agencies more accessible helped pave the way for the CPSC's move with the negotiation of terms of service agreements.

"Through social media, CPSC can directly reach millions of the moms, dads and others who need our safety information the most," CPSC Chairman Inez Tennenbaum said in a written statement. "Safety can often be achieved through education, and we plan to use every available technology to keep Americans informed."

In addition to the availability of CPSC information and images on those sites, the safety agency also is offering a widget that will stream its recalls onto web sites. The CPSC put out a new campaign to educate parents about the dangers of furniture and TVs tipping over and falling on children to coincide with the launch of the social networking tools.

You can see the video below or visit the CPSC's YouTube channel.