Netflix and Co. only with proof of identity – there is resistance to the Youth Protection Act

With our cell phones, we always carry what feels like everything we know in the world with us in our pockets. Almost all content can be viewed from almost anywhere at any time.

But that also brings dangers – especially for children and young people: Violent videos, pornography, drugs or weapons are more or less freely accessible.

The parliament wanted to counter this with the new “federal law on the protection of minors in the field of film and video games”. Accordingly, in the future, all game and video platform providers would be required to verify the age of all users. Think of YouTube or Twitch, according to the federal government, but also Netflix or Facebook and Instagram.

But the law met resistance. The Pirate Party seized the referendum. An overview:

The new law

The law pursues noble goals: children and young people must be protected from “depictions of violence, sexuality and threatening scenes” in films, videos and games. Because these “may jeopardize their development”.

This would in the future include all cinemas, retailers, online mail order companies and online video or game platforms across Switzerland required to conduct age checks on everyone – before using the service for the first time.

SP National Councilor Sandra Locher Benguerel tells SRF:

Because without an age check, the law would have no effect.

The referendum on the Pirate Party

The Pirate Party has declared the referendum against the law. She accuses parliament of ‘completely’ missing its goal – namely the protection of children and young people.

Pascal Fouquet, Deputy Chairman of the Pirate Party, told SRF:

The safest way for sellers to verify age is to request an ID or passport scan. However, the referendum commission believes that not even everyone living in Switzerland has an identity card, as there is no obligation to have one in this country. Minors and adults would thus be excluded from content.

The message from the Federal Council on the law even explicitly states that identity cards can be required:

According to Article 8.3, the law stipulates that the identity card data of minors may only be used for age verification purposes. What happened to the adult data is unclear.

The Pirate Party further notes:

Photos, for example, were not covered by the law. Or videos could simply continue to be exchanged through services like WhatsApp. And with a VPN, which fools the platform into believing that you are not in the country, you can bypass all control systems anyway, according to the referendum commission.

The referendum commission has until January 19 to collect signatures. There are still a few thousand left.

The problem with the foreign providers

Martin Steiger, lawyer in the digital space, confirms the allegations of the Pirate Party against SRF:

As a user, anonymous access to videos would no longer be possible. The online magazine “Dnip”, launched by tech journalists, says:

From this Steiger derives another fear, which he formulates on his website: so that providers do not have to constantly check users, platforms should not only enter an identity card, but also a real name.

The question is whether foreign platforms such as Netflix or YouTube would introduce such a strict test especially for Switzerland.

In addition, Steiger emphasizes to SRF that foreign providers (such as Tiktok, Youtube or Steam) cannot actually be forced to comply with the law – but there is still a strong incentive to participate, since free data can be generated for use the “e.g. for advertising”.

Data protectors from “Dnip” now hope that – should the referendum not take place – the regulations will at least regulate how and what data may be collected or that the introduction of an eID will be awaited. With that, platforms such as TikTok and Youtube would only see that someone is of age. There is therefore no need to send proof of identity abroad.

(yam/oli)