Let children delete embarrassing photos from web
Ministers back ex-Facebook boss’s call for ‘iRights’
YOUNGSTERS should have the automatic right to demand the deletion of pictures and information held about them online, ministers will say today.
They will back proposals for a string of internet ‘rights’ for the under-18s to prevent them being embarrassed later on in life.
Indiscreet pictures or texts can blight j ob prospects, university offers or school places. However, even if potentially compromising content is deleted from a post, it can still turn up on search engines such as google or on other websites.
The policy is being led by Baroness Joanna Shields – the former managing director of google i n Europe and one- time Facebook boss, who was appointed a life peer by David Cameron last year.
The ‘rights’ that businesses and groups are being urged to sign up to include
‘A better digital world’
giving every youngster the right to ‘easily edit or delete all content they have created’.
The move comes as the European Union also prepares to allow adults to demand any online images or text posted by them when they were under 18 be taken down.
Under the UK plan, websites will be encouraged to have ‘delete’ buttons that young people will be able to use to request information about them be removed.
They will also be urged to introduce expiry dates for data relating to the under-18s – or not collect information about them at all.
Campaigners will also call for social media sites or computer games that can be played online to let youngsters set expiry limits themselves. The potential new ‘iRights’ are outlined in a report and f ollow research which found youngsters fear that online games and social networks dominate their time to an unhealthy extent.
Under-18s also had deep concerns that the policies of websites and apps which claim to delete their data are not comprehensive enough.
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow users to delete their own posts, but it is much harder to take down online content on someone else’s profile.
Messaging service Snapchat automatically deletes pictures and comments after they are read. However, a recipient could keep a permanent record if they used their handset to save a digital image of their screen – known as a ‘screengrab’.
Campaigners believe it is still too complicated to ask for these images or text to be taken down and want a simple button to request deletion.
Websites will also be told to explain their terms and conditions in very simple language and link to other sites offering support if young people feel vulnerable online.
Baroness Shields, minister for internet safety and security, said: ‘iRights gives a unique insight into how government can join with technology companies, civil society and business to make a better digital world for young people.’
She said the iRights have the support of search engine Mozilla, Microsoft, charities including Barnados and Save the Children and scout and guiding associations as well as teachers and parenting groups. ‘ Children and young people should also have the right to know who is holding or profiting from their information, what their information is being used for and whether it is being copied, sold or traded,’ she said.
Baroness Kidron added: ‘The problem is we have designed an onli ne world without children in mind.’ an EU regulation – known as the ‘right to erasure’ – is expected to come into force in three years. It will allow adults to insist that information or pictures they posted of themselves when they were under 18 be taken down.