GermanyJugendschutzgesetz (JuSchG, Youth Protection Act), Section 24a, Vorsorgemassnahmen (provider precautionary measures)
In force since .
An age-appropriate design code rule binding private bodies.
- Covered services
- Providers of online platforms that are accessible to minors in Germany
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to providers of online platforms that are accessible to minors in Germany.
- Take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and protection of children and teenagers within the service, the duty of Article 28(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 that Section 24a(1) recites and the BzKJ enforces.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz (BzKJ) (guidance, recorded ).
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- GV.PO-P2Processes to instill organizational privacy values within system/product/service development and operations are established and in place.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Penalties
Administrative fine for disregarding an enforceable order of the BzKJ to take the necessary precautionary measures, which the BzKJ may issue only after hearing the provider, advising it and setting a deadline
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Bundeszentrale fuer Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz (BzKJ)
Settledness
Paragraph 1 names the BzKJ as the competent authority for enforcing Article 28(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, and the BzKJ's page applies the Commission's guidelines under that Article through its office for children's rights in digital services.
- As of
- Guidance link
- https://www.bzkj.de/bzkj/anbieterpflichten/strukturelle-vorsorgemassnahmen
- Guidance body
- Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz (BzKJ)
- Open questions
- Does Section 24a JuSchG impose a duty of its own on a platform provider, or does paragraph 1 only name the BzKJ as the authority that enforces Article 28(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, so that the measures in paragraph 2 bind only as measures that may be considered for that Article?
- Which of the measures in Section 24a(2) JuSchG must a given platform take, when paragraph 2 says only that they come into consideration ('insbesondere in Betracht') and the BzKJ says the proportionality of each measure needs a case-by-case examination?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 24a lists precautionary measures such as age verification, reporting and parental control tools for online platforms accessible to minors; it states no duty to create or keep a log or record.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 24a names the Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz (BzKJ, Federal Agency for Child and Youth Protection in the Media) as the competent authority for enforcing Article 28(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (the Digital Services Act), under which providers of online platforms that are accessible to minors must take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and protection of children and teenagers within their service.
Paragraph 2 lists the precautionary measures that come into consideration: a reporting and remedy procedure suited to children, a rating system for user-generated audiovisual content, technical means of age verification for content a user rates as suitable only for adults, easily findable references to independent counseling and help services, technical tools for parental control, and default settings that limit usage risk with regard to age.
The Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz of rewrote paragraph 1 to name the BzKJ as the enforcer of that Article. The same act removed two of the earlier measures from paragraph 2. Promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette on , it took effect on the day after promulgation, .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform or serves under-18s.
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Page updated .