Some are calling it the online “eraser button”. A new law signed yesterday by California governor Jerry Brown will allow under age youth to remove posts and photos they regret putting on their social media accounts. It requires the websites to allow anyone under 18 to remove their own material and to provide instructions on how to do so. Additionally the bill offers additional advertising constraints for sites directed at serving youth under the age of 18, restricting the display of inappropriate advertising for goods like alcohol, tobacco, weapons and gambling sites.
The primary intent is clearly to help kids do a better job of managing their digital footprint. Whether to undo social harm that might be considered cyberbullying or to improve their online reputation prior to applying for a job or college, the ability to remove embarrassing stuff sounds like a great thing. But is it?
Most credible sites already allow anyone to edit or remove a post. It’s easy enough to do on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. And there are limits to this bill: you aren’t protected by a friend posting things you don’t like. And the services are only required to take down the posts so they aren’t visible to others; they can retain them on their servers.
The bill won’t solve much. Lots of good people are in favor of it, like James Steyer of Common Sense Media, citing the bill as an important first step to protect the privacy of our children. Others, like the Family Online Safety Institute’s Stephen Balkam points out that a federal solution would be better than a Caliornia-only protection that complicates matters. I suspect for any site or service that doesn’t already offer a “take-down” ability will add it for all users, not just those in California, since collecting data about user's location and age to determine policy and advertising approaches is a burden not all will want to add.
The bill, which goes into effect in January 2015, is here: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB568
And of course, anything web and child privacy related gets a lot of media attention:
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/technology/bill-provides-reset-button-for-youngsters-online-posts.html?_r=0
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/teens-online-eraser-button-california_n_3976808.html