Are there laws in place that stipulate that messages sent between users on websites need to be kept in an event that explicit conversations have taken place?
My friends run quite a successful website that uses a message system. Users can do all the usual stuff (send, archive etc) but when they clear their history it appears clean to them but in fact they are not deleted on the database as this is used to provide evidence if explicit talks have taken place.
well I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure there are no laws that require you to keep the details of other peoples private discussions. Maybe in some extreme circumstance such as finding out people were using your message system to plot a terrorist attack you might be asked to provide access to your database but I hardly think you'd get any blame for not keeping details - you'd only be to blame if you were encouraging illegal activity or allowing it to happen.
On the otherhand there are laws regarding what data you're allowed to hold about people so it might also be worth checking up whether or not memebsr should be told that their private messages are kept on record and that other people are able to read them.
They're archived in the database until they expire. The admin can use PHPBBMyadmin to browse the database, and therefore all, archived messages. Don't say anything in a private message you don't want the admin not knowing.
