Have you ever really read the terms and conditions for… Anything? Don’t lie, Santa is always watching.
With many T&Cs being pages long, most people are likely to have a quick flick-through – at best – before they click that accept button. Others will blindly accept without giving it a second thought, particularly kids.
And it’s important to know exactly what you’re signing up for, because in the case of social media, many of these terms state that the company can do whatever the fuck they want with anything you post.
A 13-year-old kid signing up for Instagram doesn’t care for legal jargon, they just wanna get dem likes, you know? But even if they did care, could they even understand the text?
Unlikely, given that a report from the UK Children’s Commissioner reckons only those “with postgraduate levels of education” can make sense of the jargon-heavy wall of text.
To make the terms much easier for younger folk to understand, a UK lawyer rewrote them in a way that makes them clear, concise and much shorter. Here’s some examples:
“Officially you own any original pictures and videos you post, but we are allowed to use them, and we can let others use them as well, anywhere around the world. Other people might pay us to use them and we will not pay you for that.”“[…] we may keep, use and share your personal information with companies connected with Instagram. This information includes your name, email address, school, where you live, pictures, phone number, your likes and dislikes, where you go, who your friends are, how often you use Instagram, and any other personal information we find such as your birthday or who you are chatting with, including in private messages (DMs).”“We might send you adverts connected to your interests which we are monitoring. You cannot stop us doing this and it will not always be obvious that it is an advert.”“We can change or end Instagram, or stop you accessing Instagram at any time, for any reason and without letting you know in advance. We can also delete posts and other content randomly, without telling you, for any reason. If we do this, we will not be responsible for paying out any money and you won’t have any right to complain.”“We can force you to give up your username for any reason.”“We can, but do not have to, remove, edit, block and/or monitor anything posted or any accounts that we think breaks any of these rules. We are not responsible if somebody breaks the law or breaks these rules; but if you break them, you are responsible.”
It certainly makes a difference, doesn’t it? You can read the full rewrite here.
Source: Gizmodo.
Photo: The Simpsons.
