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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

California's New Digital "Eraser Button" Law

On January 1, 2015, California's SB 568 Privacy Rights For California's Minors in The Digital World goes into effect.  The bill was signed in September 2013 and gave website operators a little more than a year to ensure that they have the ability to comply with the new law.

In general, SB 568, seeks to protect minors by generally prohibiting operators of digital platforms (such as web sites, online services, online applications, mobile apps, etc...) from knowingly marketing and advertising to a minor a broad range of products specified in the law.  Some of these products may include alcoholic beverages, firearms, ammunition, tobacco products, fireworks, lottery tickets, tattoos, drug paraphernalia.  The new law requires operators of digital platforms to notify minors of their rights to remove content or information they posted and honor their requests to remove such data, subject to specified conditions and exceptions.

At first glance, this new law doesn't appear to have much teeth.  For example, the law doesn't appear to have an enforcement mechanism and it is silent about a private right of action against those who may violate the law.  Therefore, when this new law is allegedly violated how does one go about rectifying the situation?    

While SB 568 may help protect California minors from some digital mistakes that may harm their ability to gain acceptance into the college of their dreams, it should not replace educating our children about the digital issues that they confront every day.

Copyright 2014 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved. 

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