Systems and methods enforce an expiration date for an electronic document and represent the expiration visually. The author may specify an expiration date for an electronic document. The expiration date may be either a date stamp or an integer representing a period of time from the creation date. The access to the document may be unavailable to a user after the expiration date. The visual representation of the document may age after a milestone date is reached. Random pixels may be added to the visual representation until the document expires. An algorithm may apply visual metaphor bitmaps to the document's visual representation. The bitmaps may be templates. The document may be mapped to the applied bitmaps. The document may be rendered illegible after the expiration date is reached.