back to article Let kids delete their online rants, demand campaigners

Ministers have backed a campaign designed to give young people greater deletion rights over the stupid content they generate as youngsters. The campaign wants to give younglings under the age of 18 the right to fully remove data and content they have created due to "errors of judgment, unhappy experiences and attitudes that …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    May I suggest...

    That we extend this right to adults too ?

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: May I suggest...

      I probably agree with you, but what right is that? The way I read the iRights bulletin is that we should help young people to see the net with a wider perspective and help them disengage when they get too involved. I would hope that parents and those interacting with young people already take on that kind of mentoring. It seems the iRights folk are suggesting that developers play a role in that. I agree.

      1. Mark 85

        @Ole Juul -- Re: May I suggest...

        What you say is more of wishful thinking. Parents let the kids run amok on the 'net. It's the new electronic babysitter like TV used to be but now it's interactive and forever.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: May I suggest...

      "That we extend this right to adults too ?"

      Why? If you don't want something online don't put it there in the first place. Changed your mind after the fact? Tough, deal. Pissed at the time you did it? Even tougher. Consider it a life lesson. Kids can be excused their naivity and foolishness and be given a bit of leeway because thats what kids are like, adults can't and shouldn't. If you're old enough to vote you're old enough to suffer the consequences of your actions.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: May I suggest...

      No!

      If you are fool enough not to be thinking about what you put on the net you haven't learned diddy-squat and deserve to be ridiculed for your efforts.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: May I suggest...

        So what happens if you think you are unobserved, but aren't and somebody else uploads pics/vid to the net? For the sake of the thought experiment, you're doing something legal but distasteful.

        1. MrDamage Silver badge

          Re: May I suggest...

          @moiety: If you are inside your own house, then you have the right to privacy. Once you leave your own house, then you forgo that right. Do something stupid in public, even if you think you are being unobserved, then more fool you.

  2. Fink-Nottle

    Kids these days ...

    Too prone to 'errors of judgement' to post on a web forum but old enough to vote in a Scottish referendum.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Kids these days ...

      I think the "errors of judgement" precisely sums up why the SNP wanted them voting.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Kids these days ...

        When I turned 16 and could marry, drive, pay tax, and buy cigs, I was really pissed off that I still couldn't vote. Figured our government out then.

        No taxation without representation is a no-brainer.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Kids these days ...

          Well, hopefully by now you're old enough to understand that at 16 you were really still a child and lacked the experience to have a say in how our country is run.

          Personally I'd like to see the voting age raised to at least 21, if not 25.

          1. Synonymous Howard

            Re: Kids these days ...

            And an upper limit of 60 as well.

            1. kiwimuso

              @ Synonymous Howard Re: Kids these days ...

              "And an upper limit of 60 as well."

              In which case, I suspect you won't get many voting at all!!!

    2. nijam Silver badge

      Re: Kids these days ...

      Much the same thing...

  3. 2460 Something
    Boffin

    Translation

    We realised there was a niche market with potential to generate revenue from online trolls. A second round of funding will be announced once we have done a full background on our original donors and identify the content that they surreptitiously wanted deleting.

  4. PleebSmash
    Coat

    the right to hyperlink

    http://irights.uk/

    fundamental hyperlink rights

    1. TitterYeNot

      Re: the right to hyperlink

      "Vulture Central's backroom gremlins invite Reg readers to try and decipher the iRights website"

      I can't be bothered to find my 'Bollocks-to-English Dictionary', but here's a rough translation:-

      Blah blah marketing-speak-bollocks mutter mutter patronising-alliterated-emptitudes murmur murmur this-sentence-means-absolutely-nothing blah blah brainless-twitterings-of-a-civil-service-fuckwit etc. etc...

      And I'm sure it's a total coincidence that this minsterial iRights campaign was started shortly after the election of a new Baby of the House of Commons (not mentioning any names but the Right Honorable Member's name rhymes with crack) who has been frantically purging their rather embarassing tw@tter history of any references to Tennants Extra, pizza, maths being shite and Smirnoff being the drink of gods.

      Didn't send the needle on my cynicism meter swinging wildly at all, no siree...

  5. S4qFBxkFFg

    I hear the worm cannery is hiring.

    Plenty of kids lie about their age to use social media - will it only be people in Twitter's/Facebook's/Whatever's databases who were listed as <18 at the time of the now-regretted career-threatening idiocy who get the big red delete button?

    Can I claim to have been <18 even though I put a DOB of 01/01/1900 in their form?

    Seriously - make people learn the internet is in pen - either the kids will learn to keep a lid on it, or a dubious internet history will become so common that no-one cares.

    <joke>Maybe people could even stand by their past actions and defend them (or admit all and ask for forgiveness).</joke>

  6. PleebSmash

    rights here

    Right to scrub

    Right to eternal youth

    Right to coddle

    Right to wisdom

    Right to RTFM

  7. Teiwaz

    Right to turn back time...

    So will this right to delete embarrassing pics/comments erase the unfortunate consequences if not done before the authorities come looking for them at 6 or 9.am. due to over-diligence or unfortunate error/oversight due to lack-of-funding/training / terrorist alert / zero tolerance etc....

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd make deletion mandatory

    Preferably within minutes of them posting anything

    I know the yoots are all over the interwebs with no parental supervision but I've never thought this was a good thing - letting your kids roam the streets willy nilly is something most parents wouldn't want to do, never understood why the Internet was any different.

  9. David Roberts

    Does this mean the Queen....

    .....can have those embarrassing pictures of her aged 7 deleted from the Interwebs?

    1. Graham Marsden

      Re: Does this mean the Queen....

      Whereas the ones of the England Football Team saluting Hitler on the orders of the Foreign Office will remain...?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ehh.. Can't posts be deleted already?

    I genuinely don't get this... Posts can already be deleted. There is a delete button for individual comments / images and a delete account function on all major social media platforms. What in addition do they feel young consumers need?

    1. ratfox

      Re: ehh.. Can't posts be deleted already?

      I think they also want the re-shares, copy-pastes, quotes and downloaded images to be deleted. If possible, people who know about it should forget too.

  11. FreekyOne

    Not sure this is a great idea

    So, basically it is being suggested that kids are given a rule saying they can troll/hate/abuse online all they like and not worry about the repercussions? Can't see that going wrong. Glad government is looking after this one and not, say, parents.

    (Also, did I see something about 'a right to be forgotten' a little while back? Does that cover this?)

    1. Synonymous Howard

      Re: Not sure this is a great idea

      Is that the Catholic approach to Internet use? ... Sin, repent, repeat

      Giving rise to arrogance/ignorance/intolerance without responsibility?

      (just watched edge of tomorrow again, bang, again, 'no wait I can walk' bang, again)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not sure this is a great idea

      'Glad government is looking after this one and not, say, parents'

      Indeed. Seem to recall reading an article a while back about how internet industry leaders (can't recall who but think it was US) let their kids use the Internet. Basically they didn't.

      These were the leaders of companies that encourage everyone to spill their guts on social platforms, attitudes to letting their own kids do the same thing were quite telling.

  12. Jimboom

    Just because you delete something on the internet doesn't mean it is gone

    Would said data be removed from any data that was previously slurped by NSA/marketing companies or indeed facebook's own backups?

    Can't imagine they would.

  13. Alister

    "Vulture Central's backroom gremlins invite Reg readers to try and decipher the iRights website"

    Original Text:

    "It must be right that the commercial considerations used in designing software should be balanced against the needs and requirements of children and young people to engage and disengage during a developmentally sensitive period of their lives. It must also be right that safety software does not needlessly restrict access to the internet’s creative potential."

    Translation:

    Wot it is, right, is that them big companies wot write the web should be told to give a shit about us wot wants to read it all, right, and they should back off and let us get on wiv it, right, and anuvver fing, they shouldn't oughta be allowed to block stuff we want to look at, right?

  14. Teiwaz

    What about e-mail-ish (sms and other 'sent' items)

    Are they really intending to try and implement (sorry, get the carriers to implement) 'take-backs' on such messages.

    ...What if someone says 'no take-backs' first?

  15. Pen-y-gors

    How about...

    Mandatory deletion of all Twatbook accounts one month after 18th birthday, and they have to create a new grown-up a/c. Simples?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This post has been deleted by its author.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Unfortunately for you, the Wayback machine has already indexed your content. And just deleting it will do you no good. To quote:

      I like big goats all smothered in whipped cream

      I like it when my goats run headlong into my arms

      In summary: I like big butts and I cannot lie.

  17. clayusmcret

    Yes, think of the kids and be responsible parents. Don't let social media become this generation's version of the babysitter (that TV was to the last). How about actually making your child wait until he or she is adequately mature to understand the ramifications of online social rants? Parenting - what a unique and unheard of function these days.

    1. Synonymous Howard

      I'm a responsible parent, I have not bred.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I'm an irresponsible baker, I have no bread

  18. jake Silver badge

    Whatever.

    My kid had free reign to the Internet. In the family living quarters, not in private ... at least not until she went off to Uni. When she ran across "icky stuff" (her words, not mine), we discussed it. Her daughter (pre kindergarden) will be raised the same way, or so she says ... Growing up in a barn helps, IMNERHO ;-)

    Why parents provide unsupervised access for their kids to access the tawdry underbelly of the entire planet is beyond me ... In my day, parents parented.

    1. David Nash Silver badge

      Re: Whatever.

      If your daughter has a child she is older than the current generation where social media is everything, and it was probably easier to monitor her internet access. Even better if she was your only one.

      While I agree on the point about parents parenting generally, it's easier said than done. If they are at home you can check up on them, although looking over their shoulder the whole time is impossible. And do you prevent a 13-year old having a smart phone when "everyone has one" and all phones are smart anyway? Do you police their internet access when out with friends?

      It has to rely on education and trust, but kids make mistakes, follow the wrong crowd, etc.

      Having said that, this new proposal is just silly. I think they must believe that there is some body somewhere who can control what is "on the internet".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Whatever.

        @ David Nash: you are right about education and trust and that is the key part of parental responsibility in this. It is probably too late to shut the gate to underage access to the various technology. Perhaps a better solution would be to only allow children to have any social media accounts with full parental details being provided? That would allow parental oversight and provide some deterrent to cyber bullying, at least in the cases where parents aren't f'ing kidults who support their offspring's bad behaviour without question and encourage/exemplify bad behaviour.

  19. Graham Marsden
    Facepalm

    "try and decipher the iRights website"

    "Kids should be allowed to run around and shout and scream and scribble on the walls without any supervision from their parents and then get off scot free and not have to take responsibility for what they've done or the mess they've left behind them."

    FTFY.

  20. Amorous Cowherder
    Coffee/keyboard

    Best of luck!

    You really think Facebook, Twitter and all that lot really want kids removing all that juicy data they've posted? You're dreaming!

    With the Internet, as most of us know it, now roughly 25 years old ( yes I know, DARPA, etc, more like 60 but I'm think Joe Public's perception here ) the marketing men are are on the cusp of cradle-to-grave tracking of a person's online life. Most of the young adults the 18-30 crowd have never known a world without some form of online services and they've been steadily dumping their persona all over the net since they could sit upright and push buttons. That cradle-to-grave data is worth megabucks to the ad men and marketers, and especially those who make a killing selling you as the product, the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Googles of this world. They're not going to let go of it without a fight.

  21. Yugguy

    WHOA THERE!!!!

    Back up the wagon.

    The SNP is agreeing with something even vaguely connected to the Tory government?

    HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD????

  22. Tom Chiverton 1

    I thought only terrorists had something to hide ?

    1. Graham Marsden
      Devil

      You haven't met some of the children I have...

    2. jake Silver badge

      @ Tom Chiverton 1

      "I thought only terrorists had something to hide ?"

      Hi, Tom. Might I point out that you don't have a plate glass exterior wall in your shower, and you do have drapes in your living room & bedroom? Hopefully there is a door between the toilet and the rest of your house. Privacy isn't always covering something illegal.

  23. Yugguy

    They do have a point though.

    I mean back in the day we ALL did and said some bloody stupid things.

    Only we didn't have them recorded for all time and for all the world to see.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: They do have a point though.

      Depends if you were bad enough to make the local paper...

    2. DiViDeD

      Re: They do have a point though.

      "...we didn't have them recorded for all time and for all the world to see"

      You've never met my mum, have you?

  24. Mike007 Bronze badge

    defend your statements?

    If your "defence" for your actions is "I was an idiot and spoke without checking if I knew what I was talking about and acted without thinking of the consequences", I am going to judge you as an idiot who speaks and acts without thinking, and I am not going to assume that what you are telling me today is any better researched than the previous nonsense you admit you were making up. It's called a reputation.

    I "grew up on the internet" when it was full of professionals and academics before facebook and such. If I made a fool of myself I was respectfully mocked and took note to do my research before "acting like an expert" so I would say something more intelligent next time.

    I have scrapped my "teenage identity", however if someone did find my old activities I am happy to defend anything I said. The way I said some things might come across as immature, however I can explain that the nature of the interactions and the way the person was treating me lead to an emotional reaction and can generally point out their messages were far more offensive than mine. I then alter the conversation on to the intellectual content of the messages, which was always well reasoned and researched before posting.

    Unfortunately the Internet is not the same place as it was then - If whenever you post factual information that someone doesn't like you get bombarded with "you dunt know what ur talkin bout if you fink that, shut up", you aren't ever going to learn the art of constructive conversation, you are just going to learn to "ignore idiots", including "idiots" who have a valid point.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like