Hacker News Reader

Comment by kccqzy | Hacker News Reader

The key point is to expunge these old criminal records so no one could find them. Not the media, not a future employer.

Right. Expunged to the point where you could say "No I have never-" on a government form without that being considered a lie.

I looked into getting my record cleaned up/sealed with my attorney and it all just sounded very... expensive.

Not possible for any crime that is reported on by media, surely.

If its online newspapers then in EU we have the "right to be forgotten" which helps with those articles to be removed from search engines.

> which helps

Especially if you’re a corrupt politician, child abuser etc. it’s really helpful for that sort of people. Not so much for everyone else, but why would that ever be an issue?

I would think that, especially in a everything-online world, this is very useful for regular people. I for sure have removed some links to embarrassing posts I made as a teen, to which I've long lost account access to, to remove manually. And now with everybody's kids being on Tik Tok etc since very early age, I assume it will be used more and more.

If the law is written correct you sue any orinization that digs it up for libel. When those are won they will stop.

So newspapers will be afraid to report on things like that even when it clearly is in the in interest of the society for them to do that?

Criminal records don’t exist just to punish people and penalize them for the rest of their lives but also to inform other what those people are capable of. Expungement should only be possible for non-serious crimes and/or on a case by case basis

What crimes should be expunged, when it should be done, and how to do it are all debates worth having. There are lots of other details worth debating. However once the crime has been expunged it shouldn't be brought back again - that is the whole point: let people who have reformed get on with their life as best as possible.

The internet never forgets though. You'd have quite a job deleting all the old reports in the media.

I mentioned in another comment here, but if you are in EU, the "right to be forgotten" makes it quite easy to remove results you do not like about yourself from search engines. Google for example provides a simple form to fill out, and from what i recall in about a month or so those links are gone from results.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com