HungaryMttv. Sections 9 and 11, Programme Age-Rating Classification and On-Demand Display Duty
In force.
An age-appropriate design code rule binding private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Operator establishment
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to media service providers; the on-demand duties bind on-demand audiovisual media services.
- Sort every programme you intend to publish into one of the age-rating categories the law defines before it is broadcast; exceptions include news, political information, sports and trailer programmes, and a programme viewable regardless of age goes into category I.
- Sort a programme whose defining element is violence, the promotion or portrayal of deviation from the self-identity corresponding to the sex assigned at birth, of gender reassignment or of homosexuality, or the direct, naturalistic or gratuitous portrayal of sexuality, into Category V, which a linear service may publish only between 22:00 and 05:00 (Sections 9(6) and 10(1)(d)).
- On-demand services: publish a programme only in the manner its age-rating category permits.
- Display the age-rating category prominently when a programme is presented in your catalogue or before the user views it. On-demand providers that the Media Council's recommendation treats as having low revenue or a small audience are exempt.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Nemzeti Média- és Hírközlési Hatóság Médiatanácsa (Media Council of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority) (guidance, recorded ).
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Guidance link
- https://nmhh.hu/dokumentum/162607/hatekony_muszaki_megoldasok_kiskoruak_vedelmeben.pdf
- Guidance body
- Nemzeti Média- és Hírközlési Hatóság Médiatanácsa (Media Council of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority)
- Open questions
- Does the age question suggested in the Media Council recommendation ('Ön elmúlt már 18 éves? Igen - Nem') satisfy the on-demand duty in Section 11 of the Mttv. to publish a programme only in the manner its age category permits, given that the recommendation is not binding law?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 9 requires a media service provider to sort each programme into an age category before it is published, and Section 11 requires an on-demand provider to show that category and to apply an effective technical solution so that programmes in categories V and VI are not available to minors. Neither Section requires a log, a record of who was admitted or a record of the classification to be kept or produced. Section 11(2a) bars commercial processing of minors' personal data collected under these rules but sets no retention rule.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Section 9(1) requires a media service provider to sort every programme it intends to publish, other than a fixed list of exceptions such as news, political information, sports, and trailer programmes, into one of the age-rating categories the section defines before it is broadcast; Section 9(2) puts a programme viewable regardless of age into category I. Section 11(1) requires an on-demand audiovisual media service to publish a programme only in the manner its category permits, and Section 11(1a) requires the age-rating category to be displayed prominently when a programme is presented in the service's catalogue or before the user views it.
Section 11(1c) exempts an on-demand provider that the Media Council's recommendation treats as having low revenue or a small audience from the display duties in Section 11(1a) and (1b).
Section 9(6) requires a programme that may adversely affect the development of minors, in particular because its defining element is violence, the promotion or portrayal of deviation from the self-identity corresponding to the sex assigned at birth, of gender reassignment or of homosexuality, or the direct, naturalistic or gratuitous portrayal of sexuality, to be sorted into Category V, which carries the rating not recommended for persons under the age of eighteen.
In a linear media service, Section 10(1)(d) lets a Category V programme be published, with an appropriate signal, only between 22:00 and 05:00.
By judgment of in Case C-769/22, European Commission v Hungary, the Court of Justice declared that, by introducing Section 9(6) and adopting Section 32(4a) of this Act, Hungary failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 6a(1) of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and Articles 1, 7, 11 and 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The Court found that Section 9(6), read with Section 10(1)(d), and Section 32(4a) make a distinction directly based on sex and sexual orientation, which Article 21(1) of the Charter prohibits in principle. Section 9(1) was established by Act LXXIX of 2021, Section 9, and further modified by Act LXI of 2022, Section 27; Section 11(1a)-(1b) was inserted by Act LXI of 2022, Section 23.
Act LXXIX of 2021's own closing provisions set general commencement at the fifteenth day after promulgation, and that Act was promulgated on ; Act LXI of 2022's own closing provisions set general commencement, for the section establishing Section 11(1) and (1a), at the eighth day after promulgation, and that Act was promulgated on . The sections this entry groups came into force on different days.
Act LXI of 2022 separately states that its own Section 27, which later amended the already-effective Section 9(1), took effect on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app serves under-18s.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .