A new Oklahoma law is designed to help estate executors or administrators gain control over social networking profiles of people who died and left them behind. Experts say the law itself may prove toothless, but it should remind people to think about what happens to their online legacies after they die.

Former state Rep. Ryan Kiesel, D-Seminole, co-authored House Bill 2800 before he left office. The law, which took effect Nov. 1, has its genesis in an National Public Radio piece Kiesel heard about what happens to Facebook pages when people die, and the problems families have had gaining control.

The law assumes a Facebook page or other social network account is the property of the person who creates and uses it. That may not be the case, because most websites claim the information as their own in agreements when users sign up.

â€œThe property rights are generally defined by those user terms and conditions â€” which people never read, by the way,â€ said Mike Lackey, a Washington, D.C., attorney for the international law firm Mayer Brown with experience in social network law and policies. Lackey said he thinks the law is the first of its kind in the U.S.