California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law Sept. 23, requiring websites to allow minors to remove their own postings and requiring the site to clearly inform minors how to do so, according to a Huffington Post article.
"The law is meant to help protect teens from bullying, embarrassment and harm to job and college applications from online posts they later regret," wrote Kathleen Miles.
But TechCrunch writer Gregory Ferenstein argues that the law "ignores the reality that it's nearly impossible to delete information from the net: embarrassing photos spread virally, and Internet archives automatically create copies of nearly every piece of information on the web."
And since users can only delete data they upload, how is this law protecting minors from cyber bullying?
"These companies are keen to avoid bad press just as parents are keen to avoid bad attention toward their children," Rhys Williams, Senate President Steinberg's press secretary, told HuffPost.
So based on that quote: Should the government be responsible for creating laws to essentially protect teens from themselves? Or should the brunt of that burden fall on parents and the minors?
Will this law hinder minors in California from cultivating strong online identities, from self-reflecting before posting? That question is almost rendered moot since major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine already allow users of any age to delete their posts -- including photos and comments. Thus, in my eyes, this law is pretty toothless, because children aged 13-18 already do all the erasing they want on the sites they use most.
So do you support this law? What positive effects may come from it? Adverse ramifications? Do you think it's important for minors to independently learn how to conduct themselves in the digital space? Or should laws protect them until they learn how to do so?