Germany Cracks Down on Child Porn Sites

BERLIN — A German federal panel has passed legislation that aims to block Internet pages containing child pornography and make it harder for individuals to profit from distributing the material.

The legislation is due to be signed into law by next month and the installation of software to block access to the sites will take more than three to six months.

Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen said areas in Britain, Italy and Scandinavian countries, which blocked access to child pornography websites several years ago, had been a model for Germany.

"If these countries can overcome any legal and technical issues and successfully fight child porn online, we can do the same in Germany," von der Leyen said.

All German Internet service providers will eventually have to adhere to the law. So far, the ISPs that have voluntarily agreed to sign a contract with the government and the Federal Crime Office cover 75 percent of the market.

Von der Leyen said the new measures could prevent about 80 percent of new consumers from gaining access to child pornography on the Internet.

Although the proposal has been welcomed by the federal telecommunications group Bitkom, the association's managing director Bernhard Rohleder warned against expecting the problems of child pornography to be solved.

Rohleder said that the proposed new law would have a limited effect because most child porn surfers would conceal their IP address and that many use peer-to-peer servers, which ISPs are powerless to control.

The ASACP's Tim Henning, who is the organization's technology and forensic research director, said he is encouraged that measures such as these have been implemented by countries in Europe.

"It will not solve the problem of child exploitation as there are methods to circumvent such technologies; however, it will certainly help to reduce child exploitation in these countries and filtering such content by ISPs is another tool that can be brought to bare in the fight to protect children,” Henning told XBIZ.

But, Henning said, "there is always a concern that a government may go too far in their filtering, which recently happened in Australia when the ISPs pulled out of the filtering test.”

Related:  

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

Trump Administration Issues Executive Order Against 'Debanking'

The White House on Thursday issued an executive order limiting financial institutions’ ability to restrict access to financial services for people or groups involved in lawful industries, a longtime goal of adult industry advocates and stakeholders.

Go.cam Launches Free Age Verification Solution, Anti-Fraud Features

Go.cam has announced that its age verification solution is now free with updated anti-fraud and identity protection features.

Florida AG Sues EU-Based Adult Companies for Failing to Age-Verify Users

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit Monday with the 12th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida against five EU-based adult companies for allegedly failing to require age verification before allowing access to adult content.

SkyPrivate Launches 'Telegram Pay-Per-Minute' Feature

SkyPrivate has launched a new pay-per-minute (PPM) private show option on Telegram.

Pineapple Support to Host 'Money and Mental Health' Online Event

Pineapple Support is hosting a free, online event to help performers balance financial wellbeing with mental health, Aug. 18-19.

Arcom Warns 5 Adult Sites Over Age Verification

French media regulator Arcom has sent enforcement notices to the operators of five adult websites that the agency says have failed to implement age verification as required under France’s Security and Regulation of the Digital Space (SREN) law.

MojoHost Debuts NVIDIA Blackwell-Powered Hosting

MojoHost has announced the launch of NVIDIA Blackwell-powered hosting featuring RTX 6000 Pro MaxQ GPUs.

FSC: Identity Theft Targeting Adult Performers

The Free Speech Coalition has put out an alert warning of an individual found to be targeting adult performers for identity theft.

Assylum.com Implements New Age Verification System

Assylum.com has introduced an age verification system across its member sites.

European Commission to Assess Pornhub, XVideos, XNXX Compliance With Digital Services Act

The European Commission plans to conduct a study to determine how well adult sites Pornhub, XVideos and XNXX are addressing illegal content and other potential harms under the EU’s Digital Services Act.

Show More