Germany

[DE] Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media confirms that Sky Stream, WOW and O2 TV youth protection programmes meet legal requirements

IRIS 2025-5:1/24

Christina Etteldorf

Institute of European Media Law

At the end of March 2025, the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media – KJM) reviewed the youth protection programmes of the audiovisual streaming providers Sky Stream, WOW and O2 TV. Under the provisions of the German Jugendmedienschutzstaatsvertrag (state treaty on the protection of minors in the media – JMStV), it saw no reason to raise any serious objections and concluded that the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia-Diensteanbieter (voluntary self-monitoring body for multimedia service providers – FSM) had not exceeded its discretionary powers when assessing the programmes’ suitability.

Article 5 of the JMStV requires broadcasters and telemedia providers to ensure that programmes that could potentially impair the development of children or young people can only be viewed by age groups for which they are suitable. Providers of telemedia, such as video-on-demand services, can meet this requirement by labelling their content with an age rating (from 6, 12, 16 or 18 years) that can be read by a “suitable youth protection programme”. Just like the age ratings themselves, the suitability of such software for reading the ratings is checked by voluntary self-regulatory bodies such as the FSM. In this system of regulated self-regulation, the KJM, acting on behalf of the relevant German state media authority, only examines whether the self-regulatory body has exceeded its discretionary powers when making its assessment. In the present case, however, it raised no objections with regard to the youth protection programmes of Sky Stream, WOW and O2 TV, meaning that they are now deemed suitable.

The providers each use different models, but each offers the protection for children and young people required by the JMStV. Sky Stream allows customers to assign an age restriction to their account and specify whether the account should have access to content with an age rating of 0, 6, 12, 16 and 18. Age restrictions can be activated and content unlocked using a parental control PIN assigned during registration. In addition to the account age restriction, an app lock can be activated, requiring the PIN to be entered to access third-party apps.

WOW also allows the customer account to be age-restricted. Individual programmes that are not age-appropriate can then only be watched by entering a four-digit PIN that is set up during registration. The age restriction is deactivated by default and can be activated during registration or at any other time.

O2 TV enables its customers to create different user profiles in their account, to which different age restrictions can be assigned. An account-wide parental control PIN can also be stored in the account settings. Individual user profiles can be assigned a parental control PIN when they are first created or when they are used later. The parental control PIN is deactivated by default and the main user profile is not age-restricted.