My niece wrote incorrect information and she thought that it was funny. It is not and it is incorrect. How do I delete the account she set up?
I’m going to offer some general comments to help you solve this problem since I don’t know exactly which website you are dealing with. I’ll also offer a few ideas in case she does something similar to this again. Many kids don’t understand the implications of what they post online or the seriousness of posting inaccurate information.
Deleting Web Accounts
The easiest way to delete the account is to have your niece delete the account. This can be done through her account settings. If she refuses to do so, then you can contact the moderator/webmaster for the website and request that they delete the account since it contains inaccurate information. If she is underage, this strategy might work.
However, you might be required to prove the inaccuracy of the statements, your relationship to your niece, or provide parental or guardianship permission. Typically, verification must be made and once it is, the host site will delete the account. In general, a great many websites require their members to indicate their age status, but this alone does not prevent minors from signing up. Once their underage status is discovered and proven, it takes short work for the host site to delete the account.
On the other hand, if your niece has already reached adult status, you might need to file a harassment charge with the website in order to get them to take the posting down. This will not reflect well on your niece and will become part of her online persona. I suggest trying to reason with her and explain that she could face legal trouble if she continues to post false information.
Deleting Comments
In some cases, deleting comments is an easy enough task. For example, if your niece posted this information in a comment on one of your blogs, all you would need to do is sign into your blog and edit the comment in order to delete it. If your niece is posting invalid comments to your webpage, you should be able to delete them on your own or to block her as a user on your page.
Another example would be if she posted on another person’s Web site. The best way to determine this is with her cooperation. If she does not want to do log in and edit her comment, but will allow you to do so, obtain the username and password for your niece, log in, and look around the website for information on posting/deleting comments. In some cases, the website will contain an icon or word that is an active link for deleting the comment.
Unfortunately, some websites do not offer this easy road to deleting comments and the task becomes much more of a problem. When this is the case, the best strategy to take is to contact the owner of the website with the exact details of the situation. Request that the information be deleted since it is inaccurate.
Susan Keenan | June 30th, 2009
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