The Heads of Government of the Federal States decided to further improve the State Treaty on Youth Media Protection (JMSTV) at the Prime Ministers’ Conference in Berlin on Thursday. It aims to install porn filters at an entry level on PCs, laptops and smartphones and introduce age labeling for websites and apps.
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According to the amended Article 12, operating system providers will have to ensure in the future that they have a “parental protection device”. Such filtering systems, it continues, “should be able to be activated, deactivated, and adjusted in a simple, easily accessible, and safe manner”.
Windows in child mode
Amendment to JMStV, which has been controversial for years Part of the Sixth Media Amendment State TreatyTherefore parents or other authorized persons should be able to set the age information in the child protection device. The devices are then automatically set to the corresponding child or youth mode.
Manufacturers of operating systems must ensure that “only apps that are age-appropriate or have been activated individually and in a secure manner can be used”. The installation of programs should only be possible through sales platforms such as app stores that take age ratings into account and have an automatic rating system recognized by the Youth Media Protection Commission (KJM).
The use of normal browsers such as Chrome, Firefox or Safari will only be possible in special mode if they have the “Safe Search function” or insecure access activated individually and in a secure way. In general, the use of browsers and programs should be “excluded individually and in a secure manner”. Only apps that have a recognized youth protection program or comparable appropriate means will be accessible, regardless of the age level set in the parental protection tool.
Mandatory labeling of websites and apps
Paragraph 5 of the JMStV in its current version already stipulates that providers of content that potentially impairs the development of a “self-responsible and socially competent personality” of children or young people may provide an age rating. Are. In theory, they must ensure that young people aged 6 to 18 “typically” do not pay attention to such material. The age classification should read “by appropriate youth protection programmes”.
Ultimately the Prime Minister avoided an explicit requirement that apps or websites provide age information that could be identified by the operating system. However, anyone who does not mark their relevant offers accordingly should expect that their content will no longer be displayed when parental controls are activated.
The extended paragraph 5c JMSTV also covers explosive content: according to it, providers of telemedia “for films, series and game programs that they offer as their content” must display them “with clearly understandable labels at the beginning.” “Through” age classification must be indicated. proposal”. The “essential reasons” and “threats to personal integrity” for the rating should also be clarified. This should also apply to moving images or games “whose content is entirely or essentially the same as the content of the rated In an earlier draft, this section was even broader and theoretically also referred to operators of websites and subpages.
Forced filter without practical added value?
IT and media associations as well as voluntary self-regulation institutions launched a storm against similar initiatives in the summer of 2021. During the new effort, the Internet industry’s Echo Association complained that a de facto obligation to label even non-problematic content contradicts the principle of youth media safety. Such a requirement is “neither sensible nor proportionate”. Voluntary Self-Regulation of Multimedia Service Providers (FSM) criticized that technological filters bring “no practical added value” as a new, extra-legal layer to media security.
The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Alexander Schweitzer (SPD), pointed out that Germany already has the highest level of protection for children and youth in Europe. Nevertheless, new approaches need to be taken to protect youth on the Internet from inappropriate content such as pornography, violence, hatred, hate speech and misinformation.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) said, “Until now it has been tiresome and sometimes burdensome for parents to set up individual protective functions in every app on every device.” “In the future, a password-protected entry will suffice so that children and young people can travel in the digital world in an age-appropriate and safe way.”
The Prime Minister wanted to impose a requirement to label Internet content with amendments to the JMStV in 2010. It ultimately failed because of North Rhine-Westphalia. The current reform also must still pass through state parliaments. The heads of government hope to be able to sign the draft “by their summit on March 12, 2025”. This must then be ratified by state parliaments.
It should be more difficult to avoid obstacles
The Prime Minister wants to strengthen federal media supervision in the fight against illegal content such as freely available Internet pornography through new law enforcement tools: in the future, state media authorities could be empowered to ban banks from making payments with foreign providers. should be able.
This amendment prohibits blocking orders through so-called mirror domains – i.e. the distribution of identical content under a website address that has only been minimally changed – from portals such as Pixabay, Pornhub, You Porn and MyDirtyHobby. The North Rhine-Westphalia state media authority specifically takes action against such sites.
In the future, self-control institutions should also establish concrete requirements for youth media protection with KJM and decide for themselves whether the presented systems meet the requirements. FSM welcomes Heise online. However, it remains to be seen whether the youth safety tool provided in the operating system will have the desired effect. Parents already have “simple and, above all, flexible tools”, but they are often not yet sufficiently known.
(vbr)
