One thing is clear, said Stephan Glaser, head of jugendsshutz.net: Almost all age groups of teenagers use the Internet in some way or another, with a focus on audiovisual offerings. “When we talk about safety and participation, we have to assume that services are also used by people for whom they are not really designed,” said the head of the organization, which is a joint competence center of the federal and state governments, at the presentation of the annual report in Berlin.
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This would lead to very different problems arising on the job. The long-established organization works with tips from third parties, which it checks and then reports to the operators via its own direct channels. A total of 45,963 reports submitted by employees to Jugendschutz.net were evaluated. Violations of legal regulations were identified and responded to 7,645 times – although there can also be numerous relevant media behind such a “case”.
Two thirds of the cases involved sexual violence, 12 percent pornography and sex, 11 percent political extremism, 5 percent self-harming material and two percent cyberbullying. The organization contacted providers more than 3,000 times, usually successfully, and cases were handed over to law enforcement authorities more than 3,500 times.
Young offenders are a growing problem
Young patrons are also facing a problem: Of the total 3,582 cases of child and youth pornography material, there is an increasing number of content in which the perpetrators are still minors and send pictures to each other, which is covered under the relevant from 2021. Criminal Code Article 184b collapse. The traffic light government actually wanted to improve this regulation a long time ago.
In addition, jugendsshutz.net is increasingly finding content that is created via video chat with minors. There is a strong suspicion that the creators can carry out their acts almost anonymously through so-called cyber grooming, the targeted gaining of trust from minors and subsequent remote abuse.
Hamas attack in children’s room and its consequences
The spread of extremism and hate content was another significant theme in the reporting period – particularly after Hamas’ attacks on Israel and the events that followed, Glaser said. What is particularly problematic is that children and young people also use audiovisual platforms to stay updated on world events.
Glaser says that highly violent and emotional and sometimes false or discriminatory content can have a radicalizing effect, when it comes to hatred against Muslims, hatred against Jews and insults to other groups, AI is now being increasingly used – and it is becoming harder to do. Recognize it like this According to the head of jugendsshutz.net, the modified propaganda has a powerful effect. Telegram in particular is an alternative platform for extremists due to its inadequate content moderation, but the content also finds its way to other platforms.
Despite the relevant new legislation, the providers’ reporting systems are still not efficient: While reports submitted by jugendsshutz.net as a normal user often do not lead to success, providers nevertheless take action in almost all cases when a report is made by jugendschuz.net – on Instagram the difference was around 60 percent.
Youth media protection politicians see age verification as key
For Rhineland-Palatinate Youth Minister Katharina Binz (Greens), this is part of a bigger overall picture: the platforms must fulfill their responsibilities – and the legal framework must be applied consistently. Marc-Jan Eumann, director of the Rhineland-Palatinate Media Authority and chairman of the Youth Media Protection Commission (KJM), used the example of porn platforms to clarify that this has not always been the case so far: To date, despite the obligation for youth media under the State Treaty and the DSA, there is no effective age verification system. “Work has been done here for a long time and even data-saving implementations are being carried out,” Eumann said in Berlin: “There are no longer any excuses for providers when it comes to reliable and easy-to-implement age verification systems.”
This also applies to other platforms which, due to the age structure of their users, actually have to reliably detect which age group their users belong to – for example, in order to create certain age-appropriate default settings for them, such as non-public profiles. In theory, the Digital Services Act also provides for this, but in practice this has rarely happened.
Family minister has hope from DSA
The Internet is an important, often the only, information space for children and young people – but with many problems, said Lisa Paus (Greens). According to the federal family affairs minister, you have the right to safe and carefree participation in the digital world. The platforms were obliged to act with the DSA and they expressly welcome the first procedures by the EU Commission as the supervisory authority. However, enforcement structures are still being set up, the family minister said: “Now we have the law, the question now is to what extent we are able to enforce the law.”
At the same time, he expressed hope for progress in the negotiations on CSAM regulation to deal with content depicting sexual abuse. During these discussions, the BMFSFJ initiated a concept for age verification systems protecting fundamental rights, which should be presented this year. Poss said he is confident the dossier can be completed soon.
Media literacy should help too
Ministers, supervisory authorities and jugendsshutz.net are also concerned with the question of how to bring media literacy to frequent young users. Pause announced that the BMFSFJ would like to see cross-state, common minimum standards for teaching media skills in schools and is working in this direction.
Meanwhile, Marc-Jan Youmans made an appeal for media literacy of parents: “Do not put a single photo of your children on the Internet with a name and without pixels,” he urged citizens, and not only with regard to processing by AI systems. “We have to be upset when a photo on the Internet shows a child and, in the worst case, also with a name.”
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