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In the battle against child pornography on the Internet, the Federal Ministry for Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Young People (BMFSFJ) is calling on Germany's largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to enter into voluntary agreements. According to the BMFSFJ, the ISPs should sign voluntary agreements promising to block foreign child pornography sites by the end of February 2009. For this purpose, the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office - BKA) would give the ISPs a "blocking list". The ISPs could then use the list to block web servers from countries in which either child pornography...

On 4 February 2009, the Federal Government adopted the Bill on the regulation of citizen services portals, tabled by the Federal Interior Ministry (BMI), thereby creating the basis for so-called " Deutschland Mail " ("De-Mail") . From 2010, De-Mail should make Internet communication more reliable and secure, since it will be offered by accredited, State-checked industry providers and will enable important documents such as contracts and applications to be sent to the authorities in encrypted form. Every German citizen is entitled to the free De-Mail addresses. Anyone who sends a message via this...

The Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) has decided that the contributions paid by the film, video and television industries to the Filmförderungsanstalt (Film Support Office - FFA) are unconstitutional in their current form. It suspended proceedings arising from complaints by nine cinema operators and referred them to the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG). It acknowledged that contributions by cinema operators, video companies and TV providers to support film promotion were, in principle, justified. However, under the current rules,...

The Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Licensing and Monitoring Commission - ZAK) and the Gremienvorsitzendenkonferenz (Conference of Authority Chairpersons - GVK) of the Landesmedienanstalten (State Media Authorities) have adopted a common set of rules for radio and television competitions. The rules particularly concern the protection of children and young people. Youngsters may take part in competitions (but not game shows) from the age of 14; children under 14 are generally prohibited from participating in competitions and game shows, with the exception of competitions that are free to...

On 19 December 2008, the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament) approved the fifth amendment to the Filmförderungsgesetz (Film Subsidies Act - FFG), which had already been adopted by the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) on 13 November 2008. The most important changes concern the shortening of blocking periods for the media exploitation of films, the inclusion of new forms of exploitation, such as video-on-demand (VoD) and changes to the system of support for reference films and short films. In addition, so-called "media obligations" in the TV sector will be increased in the form of advertising...