Search results : 1094

In a press release published on 26 April 2023, the Verwaltungsgericht Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Administrative Court – VG) announced its decisions in the dispute over a ban imposed on three pornography platforms for breaches of rules on the protection of minors in the media. The VG ruled that the objection lodged and the subsequent ban imposed on the websites by the Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen (North-Rhine Westphalia media authority – LfM NRW), due to inadequate age verification mechanisms, were lawful. As a result, the decisions taken in the corresponding...

On 10 May, the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty and the Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition and Telecommunications presented the Digital Safety and Regulation Bill to the Council of Ministers. Containing 36 articles split into eight sections, this extensive piece of legislation aims to strengthen the “protection of minors online” and of “citizens in the digital world”, “confidence and competition in the data economy”, “the governance of digital regulation” and “monitoring of personal data processing...

On 24 March 2023, in order to meet the challenges of protecting young people in the media in the 21st century, media regulators from Belgium, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Cyprus set up an international working group on age verification, which will meet regularly to exchange information about topical issues related to youth protection in the media. They published a joint statement that sets out the main elements of their future cooperation. The working group’s current members are the French Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique...

On 3 May 2023, Ofcom (the UK’s independent communications regulator) gave an update on the repeal of the video-sharing platform (VSP) regulatory framework and what this means for providers in moving to the new online safety regime. Background On 5 December 2022, the UK Government set out the process for repealing the VSP regime in an amendment to the forthcoming Online Safety Bill (OSB). The OSB establishes a new regulatory framework to achieve “the adequate protection of citizens from harm presented by content on regulated services, through the appropriate use by providers of...

On 25th April 2023, the European Commission adopted its first designation decision under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which entered into force in November 2022. Based on the user data platforms had to publish by 17 February 2023, the Commission designated 17 Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and 2 Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) that reach at least 45 million monthly active users. The regulation aims at empowering and protecting users online, including minors, by requiring the designated services to assess and mitigate their systemic risks and to...