Technology

California law protects website users under the age of 18

California has become the first state to pass a law that gives minors, those under the age of 18, the right to remove any information they have posted on a website. The law also restricts the website from selling your personal information.

The new law in California will take effect on January 1, 2015. The law applies to any mobile service or website if it has members under the age of 18 who are also residents of the state of California. Needless to say, this will cover a large number of websites and mobile apps.

Content removal rights

Websites must allow minors to remove information or any content they have posted. For example, if you have a forum and a minor has posted forum posts, the minor should be able to delete the posts. If the minor has been expelled from the site, the website owner must remove the content at the minor’s request.

This will be a minor inconvenience for some websites, but a major headache for others. Much will depend on how the content of the website is managed. For some sites, removing content from the entire site will be as easy as pressing a button. For other sites, it will require a laborious and manual task of finding and removing content. For those sites, they will want to think twice about allowing minors to post and the ramifications if a minor user gets upset and then demands that their content be removed.

Sale of personal information

California law will prohibit websites from using personal information about a minor to market certain categories of products. Initially, this will include firearms and alcohol, as you might expect, but also spray paint, suntan products, and certain dietary supplements. It is reasonable to expect that the list of prohibited items will only grow.

It is important to realize that this prohibition will override the privacy policy of the website. A website cannot have a personal information use policy to market these product categories.

Time to plan

The law was passed in 2013 and takes effect from 2015. This is so that website owners have time to assess their website: who are their users, what content can users provide, how easy is it to remove the content, what information is sold. , and so on.

One problem will be seeing whether or not your website is aimed at minors and making the necessary changes.

The supposed ignorance about the age of a user will not be a defense. The law says that information like your profile, what they say in your posts, your location and address, or identifying yourself as going to school will be enough to warn you that a minor is using your site.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *