Under the motto “Let’s talk about porn”, the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia organised an informative event together with Nathanael Liminski (Minister for German federal government, European affairs, international affairs and media of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia), and Andreas Weiss, Managing Director of eco – Association of the Internet Industry. The discussion focused on challenges and solutions for dealing with content harmful to young people in the digital space.
According to a klicksafe survey, 62% of children are confronted with pornographic content before their 14th birthday, 68% of whom come across such content unintentionally. The NRW Media Authority is actively campaigning for consistent enforcement of the law on the Internet in order to better protect children.
At the parents’ evening on 5 February, it was emphasised that more than half of the parents do not believe that their children are exposed to such content. The importance of open discussions between parents and children on this shameful issue was stressed. Minister Nathanael Liminski emphasised the need to protect children from harmful content on the Internet.
Dr Tobias Schmid, Director of the NRW Media Authority, reiterated ongoing efforts to make access to content harmful to young people more difficult. Andreas Weiss, eco’s Managing Director, underlined the importance of self-regulation and self-control of the Internet industry and stressed the commitment to internationally compatible consensus-building, especially in the area of the protection of minors in the media: “Self-regulation and self-control of the Internet industry are essential concepts for the protection of minors in the media.”
On Safer Internet Day tomorrow, 6 February 2024, the Safer Internet Network DE, consisting of klicksafe, Nummer Gegen Kummer association, jugendschutz.net and internet-beschwerdestelle.de, will continue the participatory campaign “Let’s talk about porn”. In the free Q&A chat from 8 am to 6 pm experts are available to answer questions about legal assessments, uncertainties and problems as well as provide media education support. In addition, sex educators from pro familia München and sexologist Magdalena Heinzl will answer questions about sex education programmes.
