MAINZ, Germany — German authorities have introduced a proposal to facilitate network blocks against adult sites that are deemed to have inadequate age verification systems, and also to prohibit financial institutions from providing payment services to those sites.
On Wednesday, Germany’s Broadcasting Commission of the Federal States released its draft proposal to reform the State Youth Media Treaty (or “JMStV” in its German initials).
According to the commission, the regulations in the draft concern “the technical protection of minors in the media.”
The existing youth protection systems, the statement released with the draft points out, “should be made easier to use and linked together so that they can be as effective as possible. Other points in the draft include improving legal enforcement and labeling offers.”
Suggestions and comments on the proposals can be submitted until Dec. 7.
German tech news site NetzPolitik pointed out that the proposal may change the balance of power in what they call “the cat-and-mouse game” between adult sites and German media regulators.
“The responsible state media authority,” the proposal reads, “can prohibit those involved in payment transactions, in particular credit and financial services companies, from participating in payments” for the offending sites.
A comment on the draft makes clear the aim of the proposed measure: “The addition is intended to specifically address the experiences of the state media authorities in enforcing measures against providers of large porn platforms.”
Shutting Off the Money Supply to Adult Sites
“The new proposal would allow the media regulator o turn off the money supply to targeted adult sites,” NetzPolitik reporter Sebastian Meineck — who has been covering German efforts to censor the internet — explained. “This new tool is a direct result of the crackdown on porn sites in Germany — Above all, Germany’s once most visited site: xHamster. In this respect, one could speak of a ‘Lex xHamster’ — the effects of which could, of course, go far beyond that.”
Meineck told XBIZ that there is a regulation in German media law concerning online gambling there is a separate law against illegal, which has a similar structure to the JMStV, and which includes a similar authorization “to prohibit payment transactions for objectionable offers.”
The proposal also simplifies the process for the state to order network blocks.
The media regulator, Meineck wrote, “is already allowed to issue network blocks for porn sites that resist the mandatory age controls. A network block means that Internet providers such as Vodafone, 1&1 or Telekom must prevent customers from accessing a website as usual. In order to achieve such a block, the supervisory authority currently has to carry out time-consuming administrative procedures, some of which are ineffective.”
The proposed change would allow the government to more easily target mirror websites, described as sites “that have completely or essentially the same content as offers that have already been ordered to be blocked,” without “another complex procedure” the draft comments clarify.
“The experiences of media authorities in enforcing measures against large porn platforms,” again, are offered explicitly as the reason behind this change.
A Complex Network of Bureaucracies
In Germany’s complex federal system, the different states are mandated to set common rules for the protection of minors throughout the country through the Broadcasting Commission of the Federal States. Representatives of the states sit on this commission, which is chaired by the Rhineland-Palatinate state.
The two relevant regulatory media laws are the State Media Treaty, affecting all age groups (or “MStV” in the German initials), and the JMStV, which affects minors.
The executive authorities to implement those laws also act in tandem, but each federal state has its own bureaucrats. Of the 14 media supervisory authorities, the one waging a relentless war on adult content is the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, under the direction of Germany’s top anti-porn crusader Tobias Schmid.
As XBIZ reported, Schmid has waged a relentless campaign through his local State Media Authority, targeting specific adult sites as part of a drive to require age verification for viewing sexual content in Germany. Schmid has been described as having “a fetish for order,” and his efforts led to a court issuing a “network ban” and blocking access to xHamster last year. Last month, the country’s media regulators initiated steps to order a block of Pornhub, YouPorn and MyDirtyHobby.
In the separation of duties between federal (national) and state (local) authorities, regulation of what the law calls “telemedia” — i.e., the internet — is in the hands of the state bureaucrats. The 14 State Media Authorities can coordinate efforts through the Commission for Youth Media Protection.
According to the NetzPolitik article, however, some legal experts in Germany have been casting doubt that the German media regulators have the authority to regulate foreign adult sites such as Pornhub or xHamster.
Marc Liesching — professor of media law and media theory at the Leipzig University of Technology, Economics and Culture — is quoted as issuing a recent legal comment strenghtening the “country of origin” principle, which states that services should be regulated where they are based.
For legal purposes, both xHamster and Pornhub are based in Cyprus.
