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If Pornhub and other portals continue to fail to meet the demands of the LfM NRW, they are threatened with being blocked in Germany
Photo: Schöning / imago images
It could soon become much more difficult for users in Germany to get pornographic videos.
The Düsseldorf Administrative Court has decided that the German youth protection authorities can block three foreign websites from German Internet providers if they do not comply with German laws.
The State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia (LfM NRW) now wants to give the porn portals one last chance to retrofit suitable age verification systems.
"This is not only legally mandatory, but also technically very simple," explains the director of the authority, Tobias Schmid.
Alternatively, the operators could stop distributing the offer in Germany.
The portals YouPorn, Pornhub and Mydirtyhobby are affected.
If the operators still do not comply with the request, they are threatened with being blocked in Germany.
The State Agency for Media wants to oblige Germany's largest access providers to do this.
Another portal could be blocked even faster.
According to the LfM, the case is already legally binding.
Schmid is confident that the providers are now ready to "prevent illegal methods that endanger children and young people." What is meant is the xHamster portal.
An anonymous representative of the company had complained about the procedure in e-mails to SPIEGEL - according to the LfM, direct communication between the operator and the German authorities has not yet been established.
The urgent proceedings lasted over a year
Web blocking has been highly controversial in Germany for 20 years. How explosive the decision is can also be seen from the length of the procedure. The Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media had decided to block several porn portals in June 2020, and in September 2020 the lawsuits against the measure became known. It took the administrative judges more than a year just to deal with the complaints in the express proceedings. The main proceedings continue, but have no suspensive effect.
In the matter, however, the judges make it clear that the porn portals must bow to German law, even if they are based abroad.
A long process had preceded it.
On behalf of the Commission for the Protection of Young People in the Media, the State Agency first wrote to the operators themselves, then informed the authorities at the company's official headquarters in Cyprus.
At the same time, the authorities had tried to locate the servers from which the porn offers are being delivered, in order to possibly enforce a ban there.
As a last resort to enforce the State Treaty on the Protection of Young People from the Media, blocking is provided by domestic access providers.
Law enforcement in Cyprus too
Although the portal's lawyers had numerous objections to the proceedings, the Düsseldorf judges decided that every step had been legally carried out.
In the matter itself, too, the judges follow the arguments of the German authorities.
The portal operators had referred to their own youth protection measures in their lawsuit.
So they use a special label that is easy to recognize by youth protection programs, which can then prevent minors from accessing.
But the court reproaches the operators that at most 15 to 25 percent of parents use such a program.
Therefore, the German legislator is entitled to demand more effective methods.
In order to avert the lock, the porn portals for German users would have to install one of the more than 80 youth protection systems approved in Germany.
These essentially provide that a user has identified himself as of legal age with an identification document.
It is also possible to prove that you are of legal age using a corresponding account or a mobile phone contract if the age was recorded when the contract was signed.
Great Britain is also stepping up
There are also new developments in Great Britain.
Age verification systems have actually been provided for by law for years, but have not yet been implemented.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now promised to make a new attempt under pressure from parliament.
In the country, the providers have already had to integrate a blocking system for adult websites, which has so far proven to be less than successful in practice.