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UK Campaign Wants 18-Year-Olds To Be Able To Delete Embarrassing Online Past

Posted by Soulskill on from the internet-never-forgets dept.

An anonymous reader writes: People should be allowed to delete embarrassing social media posts when they reach adulthood, UK internet rights campaigners are urging. The iRights coalition has set out five rights which young people should expect online, including being able to easily edit or delete content they have created, and to know who is holding or profiting from their information. Highlighting how campaigners believe adults should not have to bear the shame of past immaturity, iRights also wants children to be protected from illegal or distressing pages; to be digitally literate; and be able to make informed and conscious choices.

6 of 318 comments (clear)

  1. No by musmax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Email and posts are forever. The faster you grow up on the internets the faster you'll grow up. Actions have consequences and it is by suffering from those that we become more human and less of that thing a 18 year old is. It will be a massive disservice to both the individual and society if we don't have that.

    1. Re:No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Best Solution

      How about restrict internet to 18 years or older.

    2. Re:No by RabidReindeer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The irony is that these days if you let your little darlings wander physical streets unsupervised, they'll come and arrest you and take away your children leaving them traumatized because the police hauled Mommy and Daddy off to jail and the Social Services people told the kiddies that their parents were horrible abusive creatures who deserved never to be allowed to see them again.

      For doing what everyone thought was natural 20 years or so ago.

    3. Re:No by wues · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is indeed by Lem. No idea about English translation, but in Polish it was published as short story "Profesor DoÅda" in the volume "Maska" ("The Mask") in 1976. The idea was that energy, matter and information are all equivalent and if you reach critical amount of information it will turn to matter, forming a new Universe separate from ours. The story is grotesque and really funny.

  2. Re:Wrong age by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This. Nobody is an adult at 18. Not even close. Most people don't have their cognitive act together, and any sort of capacity for rational behavior (if they're ever going to get there) until, these days, they're the better part of 30.

    But knowing to not shoot selfies of yourself being a total jackass is something that can make some sense a lot earlier than 18. If some 15 year old can know enough not to drop his pants in front of his grandmother or in front of his classroom at school, he already has what it takes to know not to do it online. He just has to be taught that. Which involves, you know, parents. Who give a damn about their kids' future.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  3. We keep history to learn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm 19, and I have to say this is incredibly moronic. Granted, I've posted tons of embarrassing stuff when I was younger, but that's part of growing up. I learned not do that again and moved on. Just because you said something stupid once doesn't mean people get to remove archived internet events for you. I'm so sick of my worthless pussy generation, always being "triggered" or having their feelings hurt because they're not the center of attention. I mean holy fuck, most of us are in our late teens and early 20s. Grow the fuck up.