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Keep It or Delete It? — A Child's Right to Be Forgotten and the Reconstruction of Autobiographical Memory

By Leon MoriguchiPublished May 15, 2026Updated May 18, 20265 min read日本語版あり
Audience
Parents whose child has said "delete that photo" or "don't show that video to anyone"

TL;DR

  • ·A child asking to delete an embarrassing record is exercising early agency over her own self-narrative — it marks the developmental awareness of past and present selves as distinct
  • ·Embarrassing and failure memories are the raw material of identity; McAdams' narrative identity framework shows they function as turning points in how people construct a coherent self-story
  • ·"Archive privately now, decide together later" is a third path between unconditional deletion and unconditional preservation that honors both the child's current feeling and her future self's access

Contents

  1. Lead
  2. Background: Where the "Right to Be Forgotten" Stands Today
  3. Embarrassing Memories Are the Raw Material of Identity
  4. Resolution Through Dialogue
  5. Translating This into Action
  6. Closing
  7. References

Lead

A video from when she was 10: crying while tumbling in practice. At 12, she asks you to delete it.

Emotionally, you want to comply — and yet you also feel it's part of her story of growth. Legally, does she have the right to demand deletion? Developmentally, what does erasing it actually cost? There is no easy answer.

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← PreviousWhy the Album Opens and One Parent Isn't There — The Structural Problem of the Invisible PhotographerNext →Sharenting, Twelve Years Later — The Day Photos Posted at Birth Come Back to the Child Who Was in Them

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  • The Parent's Own Story: Why You Are Also Writing a Life
  • The Moment the Phone Turns Around — When a Child Becomes a Maker of Records