National ordinance leaves questions unanswered: only with identification on the internet?

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Children have easy access to pornographic and violent content online. The federal government wants to act against this with the new federal law on the protection of minors in the field of film and video games (JSFVG). He holds the streaming providers responsible for this. The new legislative ordinance went into consultation in mid-June.

Referendum against youth protection law failed

The Youth Protection Act received a lot of criticism in January. The target is clearly being missed at the expense of the population, data protection expert Martin Steiger told the Observer. Age verification is currently only possible with an ID card. Companies can easily store and reuse this data.

Steiger also criticized the fact that companies based abroad are not threatened with sanctions because Swiss law does not apply there. “But the big platforms usually adhere to such rules in individual markets. But not on other platforms where the protection of minors would be particularly important, such as websites with pornographic content,” says Steiger.

The chairman of the Pirate Party, Jorgo Ananiadis, described the law last year as the starting signal for a new identification requirement on the internet. Network blocks are a logical consequence of this. The party launched a referendum against the law, but missed the target of 50,000 signatures by more than half.

The new regulation leaves questions unanswered

Commercial platform services such as Netflix, Instagram or Steam will therefore have to check the age before using the platform for the first time. However, the law still leaves open how age is checked. The film and video game industry should develop youth protection regulations themselves.

The consultation report mentions physical identification as a possibility. The use of an electronic identity card (E-ID) is second. Age verification with a credit card, simply entering your age or checking a box to confirm that you are of legal age are not suitable.

Critics see allegations confirmed

The Pirate Party’s campaign manager for the referendum, Pascal Fouquet, says: “The Federal Bureau has taken great note of the revolt against the law by data protection experts and the public. In January, the federal government even applauded that there would be no identification requirement. however, the legal ordinance shows that it was probably always the intention to introduce compulsory identification on the internet.” According to Fouquet, the Pirate Party will participate in the consultations and take action against the scheme.

The federal government disagrees with the criticism. Yvonne Haldimann of the Federal Social Insurance Service (BSV), which is also responsible for the protection of minors, says: “A one-time verification of age is required. However, this does not have to be done with an ID card. From our point of view, the E-ID is a very good option to keep the data in Switzerland.”

However, a corresponding E-ID law was clearly rejected at the ballot box in 2021. Haldimann is nevertheless confident. The federal government has developed a new solution for the E-ID. This will be available in the fall. And the Youth Protection Act will only come into force in two years. “We assume that the E-ID can be used by then,” says Haldimann.

But even if the age check takes place with the identity card, this does not mean that the companies can freely dispose of the data from the identity card. Haldimann says: “One way or another, Swiss data protection law applies. According to this, data may only be collected for the purpose for which it is intended, in this case age verification.”

The law is intended to come into force in the summer of 2026

The consultation on the Youth Protection Ordinance will last until October 6. Any person or organization can participate in the process and submit a statement.

The law will come into force gradually from July 2024. After that, the trade associations will have two years to develop a youth protection scheme, which will regulate the form of age control. The FSIO then checks whether the scheme is in accordance with the law. In that case, the Bundesrat declares them binding. The law will therefore take effect in 2026 at the earliest.

Source:Blick