Article On Digital Property And Probate In Florida

Storm Tropea (J.D. Candidate, Nova Southeastern Law School, 2015) recently published an article entitled, Social Media Is Permanent, You Are Not: Evaluating The Digital Property Dilemma In Florida Probate, 39 Nova L. Rev. 91-116 (2014). Provided below is an excerpt from the article:

The digital after life  has quickly become the brave new world of probate law and estate planning. The reason for this is because as recently as 2010, reports show that “[seventy-seven percent] of Americans use e-mail or the Internet, at least occasionally.”  Yet, a similar study now reveals that number has increased to show that eighty-seven percent of American adults are now using the Internet. More significantly, while nearly nine out of ten Americans from the ages of eighteen through forty-five use the Internet, ninety-seven percent of young adults ages eighteen through twenty-nine are regularly using the Internet.  The Internet has become so prevalent in society that fifty-nine percent of young adults ages eighteen through twenty-nine cite the Internet as their primary source for news, both nationally and internationally. Furthermore, research shows that nearly eig ht out of ten young adults ages eighteen through twenty-four “have created their own social networking profile.” With this expanding popularity, words like selfie and social media have now been deeply ingrained in our language, and it seems like social networking, e-mail, and microblogging are here to stay; unfortunately, we are not. Therefore, this continually debated legal question still exists: What happens to our digital assets when we die?