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Campaign for under-18s to be handed right to delete embarrassing posts from social media gets backing from ministers

Calls to give under 18s right to delete social media posts Photo: PA

A campaign has been launched calling for children aged under-18s to be granted the right to delete damaging or embarrassing posts on social media that could cause problems with later education or job opportunities.

Beeban Kidron, the crossbench peer and film director is heading up proposals to encourage websites to feature “delete buttons” and to introduce expiry dates for data garnered from children under-18, the Guardian reported.

Beeban Kidron, the crossbench peer and film director. Credit: PA

We have absolutely failed kids by not understanding that the digital world was as much a reality as any other experience they had.

The internet is 25 years old; it was not designed with children and young people in mind. Childhood is a period of immense change, and to have an uncontextualised digital footprint is disturbing.

This campaign is about the ability and the desire to curate your present self. You may have been a punk rocker and now you’re a new romantic.

Or you may have said some really stupid things about something political.

You should have the right to be who you are in the present tense online just as you are in real life.

– Beeban Kidron, the crossbench peer and film director speaking to the Guardian

The iRights coalition has outlined a charter of five rights for Under-18s including:

The right to remove

We believe children and young people should have the unqualified right, on every internet platform or service, to fully remove data and content they have created.This must be easy and straightforward to do.

– iRights

The right to know

Children and young people 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.

– iRights
Backing from Joanna Shields, internet safety minister and ex Google Europe boss Credit: PA

The right to safety and support

Children and young people should be confident that they will be protected from illegal practices and supported if confronted by troubling or upsetting scenarios online.

– iRights

The right to informed and conscious choices

Children and young people should be empowered to reach into creative places online, but at the same time have the capacity and support to easily disengage.

– iRights

The right to digital literacy

To access the knowledge that the internet can deliver, children and young people need to be taught the skills to use, create and critique digital technologies, and given the tools to negotiate changing social norms.

– iRights

A taskforce, Growing Up Digital, has been launched by Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England. It will be dedicated to improving the online lives of young people by taking up the plans.