United States of America

[US] Anti-Revenge Porn Bill and Right to Be Forgotten introduced in California

IRIS 2013-10:1/37

Jonathan Perl

Locus Telecommunications, Inc.

California has recently taken steps to extend its privacy protections. On 2 October 2013 Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation that criminalises so-called revenge pornography, where individuals post intimate pictures online that had been obtained with former consent solely for private use.

Under the old law, a victim could only obtain a remedy through a civil court judgment, which could be costly and time-consuming. To address this issue, the new law provides law enforcement with new tools to protect victims by making it a misdemeanour to distribute an image with the intent to cause serious emotional distress if the depicted person suffers serious emotional distress. The law, which takes effect immediately, carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a USD 1,000 fine.

In September 2013, California also adopted legislation that gives minors under the age of eighteen "the right to be forgotten" by removing posts they have made on Internet websites, online services, online applications, and mobile applications. Under the new requirements, which must be implemented by 2015, service providers are required to offer minors the ability to remove their own posts via an online eraser button or other processes to obtain its removal. While the posts must be removed from display, they are not required to be removed from the service providers' servers.


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This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.