Wednesday, January 17, 2024, 2:50 p.m
Red stop sign instead of information and support: websites of AIDS relief organizations and other non-profit organizations blocked. Youth protection must strengthen, rather than sabotage, non-discriminatory, age-appropriate offers.
The widespread technical youth protection filter “JusProg” has for a long time blocked access to certain websites of the Deutsche Aidshilfe (DAH) and some of its member organizations that provide information about HIV and sexually transmitted infections as well as sexual education. Numerous other important offers are also affected. Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) and netzpolitik.org report on this.
“This blocking practice is discriminatory and counteracts the mission of education and prevention. This means that young people are deprived of vital information. Sexual education offers for young people need to be strengthened instead of filtered out,” says Ulf Kristal from the board of the German Aids Aid. “Young people need trustworthy, age-appropriate offers, especially when it comes to sensitive topics.”
Stop sign for queer coming out
JusProg is widely used, among other things because it is the only program of its kind that is recognized according to legal requirements in Germany. The youth protection filter can be installed by parents or schools on devices that children and young people use, but also runs, for example, on the Bavarian public WLAN in the Free State. It is intended to block content that is potentially harmful to minors based on certain keywords. According to the operator of JusProg, a club of the same name, around one billion website visits per month pass through the filter.
Information seekers were greeted by a red stop sign when they accessed the websites MeinComingOut.de, for example, a support offer for queer young people in the coming-out process of the DAH prevention campaign ICH KNOW WAS ICH TU as well as Herzenslust in North Rhine-Westphalia, Sidekicks from Berlin and say -muenchen.de. They provide sexual health information for men who have sex with men. The drugchecking.berlin portal from Vista, the Berlin gay advice center and Fixpunkt was also affected. As is necessary in prevention and education, the offers regarding sexuality and drug use speak a clear, target group-oriented language – which the technical filter then misinterprets. All organizations mentioned receive public funding for their work.
Technology shouldn’t be everything when it comes to protecting minors
The Deutsche Aidshilfe demanded that the JusProg operators immediately release the pages, which has now been done, as well as a thorough clarification of how the breakdown could have occurred. JusProg eV has already taken measures to reduce incorrect suspensions in the future.
However, the research shows that more far-reaching measures are necessary.
“Technical youth protection measures require implementation that is sensitive to discrimination. In order to prevent unjustified suspensions, independent experts must check and correct the systems – according to publicly understandable criteria,” emphasizes DAH board member Ulf Kristal.
Operators of blocked sites should also be informed as standard so that they can defend themselves if necessary.
At the same time, young people need more non-technical measures to protect minors, for example in the form of good educational measures and age-appropriate sexual education. This is often done inadequately in schools – especially with regard to gender and sexual diversity.
The work of civil society organizations on these issues is therefore indispensable. Their financing is often precarious.
“If youth-friendly offers are then cut off from their target groups through youth protection filters, a dangerous undersupply of education and prevention arises – with fatal consequences for the mental and physical health of young people,” says Kristal.
In addition, youth protection filters, when used in public networks such as “Bayern WLAN” or in transport companies, restrict everyone, regardless of their age.
JusProg is not an isolated case
The topic of content filters is not new to Deutsche Aidshilfe: For example, the DAH Anti-Discrimination Agency processed a case whereby a gay man from the network of a rehabilitation clinic could not access the queer news portal queer.de and the gay network Romeo. Sexuality-affirming educational work is also often difficult in other social networks because posts that even contain the word “sex” are often blocked or their reach is limited.
“Prevention can only be successful if sexuality can be talked about – in a positive and supportive way,” emphasizes DAH board member Ulf Kristal.
Report on BR
Report at Netzpolitik.org
Report on tagesschau.de