Teen editor Caley comments that “Once something is “out there” on the web, it’s not yours anymore. You have no control over where it goes, who sees it, and whether or not its ever fully deleted. Pictures can be copied, pasted, scanned, e-mailed, and end up anywhere. Who knows where the photos from your prom and Sweet Sixteen will be by the time you’re twenty? And it doesn’t stop at just pictures! It’s definitely easier to just not post things in the first place than to try and clean up a mess later.”
Yahoo asks and explains. “Why do deleted photos stick around so long? The problem relates to the way data is stored on large websites: While your personal computer only keeps one copy of a file, large-scale services like Facebook rely on what are called content delivery networks to manage data and distribution.” This means that “data is copied to multiple intermediate devices, usually to speed up access to files”…
Natalie comments: “That article is soooooo true! The other day I was talking to a local Girl Scout troop about this kind of thing and how once you put something out there it can end up being permanent—no matter how hard you try to delete it. I think it’s kinda funny the way everything dealing with cybersafety connects. Like if a girl is sexting, that picture can be posted on a MySpace or Facebook page very easily—especially if she isn’t safe with her passwords and who she shares them with. She can be cyberbullied when people see [the image]. But when she goes and tries to delete that one picture, she can’t ever be 100 percent sure that it’s gone. It’s amazing how big the Internet is and how much stuff is on there, including stuff we wish we could get rid of. But we can’t. This dude is right when he says just don’t post the picture that you’ll regret. That’s the only way you can really know you’re safe.”
However, not every site is the same - Via the BBC, “The Cambridge University researchers said special photo-sharing sites, such as Flickr and Google’s Picasa, did better and Microsoft’s Windows Live Spaces removed the photos instantly.”
Tell us what you think!
Caley The moral of the story: just say no to uploading anything you'll regret later! "