Starting in 2015, social networking sites must allow minors in California to delete their posts, according to a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this week.
California State Sen. Darrell Steinberg applauded the governor for signing the legislation, saying that it gives minors "common sense protections" online.
California State Sen. Darrell Steinberg applauded the governor for signing the legislation, saying that it gives minors "common sense protections" online.
This seems like great news for teens, who don't have fully developed brains yet and may post things that they won't want future employers or colleges to see.
Darrell Steinberg, the state senator who proposed the bill, certainly thinks young people should be celebrating. "This is a groundbreaking protection for our kids who often act impetuously with postings of ill-advised pictures or messages before they think through the consequences," he said in a statement. "They deserve the right to remove this material that could haunt them for years to come."
In theory, this so-called eraser button will mean that impetuous posts will haunt teens no longer. It's a valiant goal, but as some politicians with embarrassing tweets could tell you, "delete" doesn't mean "disappear." (And can we note that those politicians are supposed to have fully developed brains by their ages?)
As the San Francisco Chronicle points out:
"If the underage drinking picture is posted by someone else, for example, it's not covered by the law. If the image is copied and posted to another Web site, that would not be covered, either.
"Web companies also are not required to scrub their servers clean of personal data, just remove the requested item from public viewing. ...
"There's an additional catch: the law doesn't extend to adults who want to go back and delete material they posted as minors."
Read the original post:
This Law Wants To Save Teens' Reputations, But Probably Won't