Germany

[DE] Bundestag Adopts Act Abolishing Access Obstruction Act

IRIS 2012-2:1/15

Peter Matzneller

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

On 1 December 2011, the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) adopted the Aufhebungsgesetz zum Gesetz zur Erschwerung des Zugangs zu kinderpornographischen Inhalten in Kommunikationsnetzen (Act abolishing the Act on the obstruction of access to child pornography via communication networks - Zugangserschwerungsgesetz).

The Zugangserschwerungsgesetz, which entered into force on 17 February 2010, was designed, inter alia, to make it possible to block Internet sites containing child pornography (see IRIS 2010-4/19). However, after heavy public criticism, in accordance with the coalition agreement of the then newly-formed Federal Government and on the basis of a decree of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, it was never implemented (see IRIS 2011-5/19).

On 17 December 2011, the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) decided not to file an objection against the Act abolishing the Zugangserschwerungsgesetz, with the result that the latter ceased to be in force when the Act was executed by the Federal President and announced in the Federal Gazette.

References

Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Aufhebung von Sperrregelungen bei der Bekämpfung von Kinderpornographie in Kommunikationsnetzen
http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/066/1706644.pdf

Entscheidung des Bundesrats
http://www.bundesrat.de/cln_110/SharedDocs/TO/891/erl/13,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/13.pdf

IRIS 2011-5:1/19 [DE] CDU/CSU and FDP Coalition Overturns Access Obstruction Act

IRIS 2010-4:1/19 [DE] Judicial and Legislative Developments on Internet Child Pornography

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.