Germany

[DE] Youth Protection on Mobile Phones

IRIS 2006-8:1/18

Carmen Palzer

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

On 1 July 2006, German mobile telephone service providers O2 Germany, The Phone House Telecom, T-Mobile and Vodafone joined the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia-Diensteanbieter e. V. (voluntary self-monitoring body for multimedia service providers - FSM). The FSM is responsible, for example, for the self-monitoring of online content, and is part of the German co-regulatory system for the protection of young people in the audiovisual media. For the mobile phone companies that have joined the FSM, implementation of the 2005 code of conduct for mobile phone providers in Germany concerning the protection of young people in mobile telephony will now be supervised by the FSM. The other signatories of the code of conduct will themselves remain responsible for ensuring they apply the code, unless they also join the FSM.

The code of conduct for the protection of young people in the media contains provisions designed to improve the protection of children and young people from mobile information and communication services that could damage or endanger their development and personality. Making direct reference to the Jugendschutzgesetz (Youth Protection Act) and the Jugendmedienschutzstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on the protection of young people in the media), it describes common standards for unlawful, pornographic or other services likely to seriously harm young people or their development, advertising for services offering such content, chatrooms, and games and films available via mobile telephone. Pornographic content or services likely to seriously harm young people should only be available to adults in closed user groups, so that children and young people are unable to access them. If content that endangers the development of young people is available, parents should be able to have access to this content blocked on their children's mobile phones. Signatories of the code are also obliged to appoint a youth protection officer.

On the same day, ie 1 July 2006, a code of conduct for premium SMS/mobile services and web-based services entered into force in Germany. As well as the four network operators O2 Germany, E-Plus, T-Mobile and Vodafone D2, content providers such as Jamba and Arvato Mobile, service providers (offering mobile telephony services without their own network infrastructure) and companies which offer technical support to content providers are among the two dozen or so signatories. The code is designed to promote the transparency of costs and to standardise the ordering and cancellation of subscriptions.