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The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the UK communications regulator, has issued a guidance on protecting under-eighteens in programmes. The guidance is non-binding, but clarifies provisions in the binding Broadcasting Code. The guidance includes advice on programmes, which may be viewed by children; for example, on the 9 pm “watershed” for adult viewing, coverage of sexual and other offences, drugs and alcohol abuse, violence and dangerous behaviour. However, the guidance mainly concerns the participation of under-eighteens in programmes. The Broadcasting Code provides that “due care must be...

The Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the protection of minors in the media - KJM ) has, for the second time, found "serious deficiencies" in youth protection filters tested via "jugendschutz.net", a youth protection site set up by the Bundesländer to provide information about youth protection on the Internet. Minimal progress has been made in this area since 2006. None of the systems tested offered adequate protection for children and young people against harmful Internet content; none of the youth protection filters met the legal requirements. Overall, they were not effective...

If content that is harmful to young people is available on the Internet, it then becomes necessary to ask who can be obliged, under what circumstances, to ensure that young people do not access the content concerned. This has been clarified in three recent court decisions. Firstly, on 6 December 2007 (case no. 10 ME 241/07), the Niedersächsische Oberverwaltungsgericht (Lower Saxony Supreme Administrative Court - OVG Lüneburg ) confirmed an injunction granted by the Niedersächsische Landesmedienanstalt (Lower Saxony regional media authority - NLM). The NLM had forbidden the provider of a portal...

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers’ (CM) recently adopted a Recommendation on measures to promote the public service value of the Internet. Its central objective is to prompt States authorities, where appropriate in cooperation with all interested parties, to take all necessary measures to promote the public service value of the Internet, inter alia by: - “upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law […] and promoting social cohesion, respect for cultural diversity and trust” in respect of the Internet and other ICTs; - setting out parameters for the roles and responsibilities...

In parallel with the increased use of co-regulation systems in the context of the protection of minors, a legal requirement has been introduced to evaluate the effectiveness of these systems. In preparation for the evaluation by the legislature, the Hans Bredow Institute (HBI) examined, on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) and the Länder, whether and to what extent youth media protection works effectively. According to the results of the study, the new approach to youth media protection established in 2003 (see IRIS 2002-9: 15) has improved...