Germany: States Pass Porn Filters for Operating Systems

(heise.de)

63 points | by trallnag 59 minutes ago

21 comments

  • Nextgrid 16 minutes ago
    Always funny to see the senile politicians blaming porn as the biggest threats to children and not their collapsing economies.

    I'm sure when those kids grow up and work long hours for the rest of their lives (if they can find a job at all!) just to be able to afford rent they'll at least be grateful they weren't able to access porn in their teenage years.

    • yubblegum 0 minutes ago
      Porn is damaging at multiple levels, specially for young adults to say nothing of "children".

      +Should be clear is that exposing children to porn or normalizing porn in no way promotes "healthy economies" either.

    • taneq 6 minutes ago
      Teach your kids to code, build electronics or tune engines, and they won’t have time for porn.
    • asah 8 minutes ago
      I hate these kinds of bills too, but it's a logical fallacy to address only the single biggest problem (assuming you agree on what it is).
  • pndy 20 minutes ago
    Might be somehow related-ish; in Poland:

    > On Friday, the Sejm (lower house) passed an amendment to the bill on the provision of electronic services, which allows for the blocking of illegal content on the internet. The new regulations anticipate that the president of UKE (Office of Electronic Communications) and KRRiT (National Broadcasting Council ) will be able to decide on the removal of content concerning 27 prohibited acts, mainly specified in the Penal Code. Prohibited acts include criminal threats, incitement to suicide, glorification of paedophilia, promotion of totalitarianism, incitement to hatred and content that infringes copyright.

    > Under the bill, the author of the disputed content will receive a notification from the internet service provider about the initiation of the procedure and will have two days to present their position. The decision of the UKE and KRRiT to remove the content will not be subject to appeal, but the author will be able to lodge an objection with a common court.

    > 237 MPs voted in favour of the bill, 200 were against, and five abstained. The bill will now be debated in the Senate.

    This happens four days after Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski said that "Poland strongly opposes the introduction of mandatory scanning of private messages in instant messaging services.".

    ---

    I don't want to wear a tinfoil hat but considering that chat control is unlikely to work at EU level, local "solutions" like above in Germany and Poland may give legal way to include scanning instant messengers in the future.

    • bko 5 minutes ago
      They already do this with social media regulations. This is the venue, not these adult content filters.

      The UK already arrests 33 people PER DAY for social media posts and that was in 2023.

      If we're going to throw people in jail for posting political memes anyway, at least parents will have some control over what their children consume.

      https://www.reddit.com/r/charts/comments/1mut3gv/12k_arrests...

    • IsTom 5 minutes ago
      Isn't this about web hosting? That ship sailed long ago.
    • Lapsa 12 minutes ago
      tinfoil hat doesn't help against hearing microwave transmitted voices
  • tardibear 48 minutes ago
    > Manufacturers of operating systems, tech associations, and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) sharply criticize the draft law. They consider the filtering requirement, in particular, to be technically and practically unfeasible, as well as legally questionable.
  • anonzzzies 13 minutes ago
    Seems really the only way forward is having your normal fast internet/live/banking/gov crap where you play a happy citizen role. And outside of that a mesh network where you really live. Sure not for most, but for me, yep.
  • shaky-carrousel 2 minutes ago
    I'm not really afraid of porn. That can be handled by talking with the kid. What I'm afraid of is the kid watching one of those awful NSFL videos. It'll eventually happen, but the later, the better.
  • Canada 30 minutes ago
    It's actually better to do this on the device.

    If you can give children something that is basically whilelisted access then it reduces the need to try to filter the open web.

    • noobermin 30 minutes ago
      it being mandated however is an absolute assault on freedom. will linux become outlawed over this?
    • brodo 23 minutes ago
      Yes. This is a bad law, but somehow still a better one than the UK got...
    • trallnag 19 minutes ago
      I don't understand how this is supposed to be water tight without client-side scanning etc.
  • designerarvid 45 minutes ago
    Totally unrelated movie tip:

    The lives of others (Das Leben der Anderen) has 8.4 on IMDB.

    • anonzzzies 24 minutes ago
      It is a very good movie. And of course another 'nie wieder' in the list of things which will repeat over and over.
  • benbristow 39 minutes ago
    One way to bring in the year of the Linux desktop
  • amelius 8 minutes ago
    The upside: this will be the year of Linux on the desktop!
  • fschuett 19 minutes ago
    > The aim is to protect young people on the internet from age-inappropriate content such as pornography, violence, hate speech, incitement, and misinformation.

    Hmmm, I doubt they really care about pornography and more about censoring certain stuff that politicians do not like. But what do I know, I'm probably just a conspiracy theorist.

    • bko 14 minutes ago
      Well considering you can go to prison in Germany for posting a meme on social media, that ship has already sailed. This has been a thing for a while. The only difference with this is this gives some parents control over what they allow their children to see on their computers

      https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2025/04/11/german-court-p...

  • rPlayer6554 24 minutes ago
    *This does not seem like a censorship measure.* It seems like it requires OSs to give parents an easy way to filter porn.

    I struggle with porn addiction. When I really fall back into it I act out 5-10 times a day. I can’t stop even if I want to. It distracts from work and from my real life relationships and girlfriend.

    Everyone on HN loves to rag on social media because it’s so toxic. What about porn? If social media makes it easy to compare my “boring” life with “beautiful” influencer lives, why wouldn’t porn make my normal girlfriend and normal sex seem boring. Part of that is how young I found porn when my brain was still developing and forming how it processed sex and relationships. Porn makes me feel so depressed.

    I am sure other people handle porn and social media better than me. And that’s ok, I respect that. *But even if you think porn is ok as an adult, can’t you see why adults should be able to have more control over what their kids see.* Yes if they are motivated kids will find it - I learned a lot of the engineering skills I have now getting around my parents blocker. *Not every kid is that good and this might help many.* If it’s not required to be on in the OS, what’s the harm?

    P.S. if you struggle with something similar to me, look up SA, SAA, or SLAA.

    • iammjm 5 minutes ago
      The issue here is not having an easy way to block porn, the issue is enforcing it. And easy ways to block apps and websites already exist. One I can recommend is called Freedom.
  • iammjm 8 minutes ago
    I want a "one button solution" to keep the boomers and the elderly from getting their brains fried by facebook and voting for authoritarian parties that want to implement such antiliberal mechanisms
  • bko 17 minutes ago
    I find it interesting how these kinds of measures are incredibly unpopular on HN and other online platforms. But if there was some regulation about social media algorithms, short form content, age restriction for social media and other mandated restrictions on social media companies, people are a lot more open.

    Why is any restriction on adult content so fiercely defended? I can post that Mark Zuckerberg should be arrested and tried at the Hague and receive a somewhat warm reception on this platform. But there are these giant faceless corporations pushing unrestricted, often depraved content to minors and people stand up for them. And this content often includes anonymous uploaded content with underage girls. It's like the meme "leave those billionaires alone!"

    I'm sure this will get downvoted, but help me understand what the visceral reaction is. I've heard people argue that this kind of adult content isn't harmful, but it seems obvious that it is, especially to children. At least more than short form content like TikTok. What would you rather your 12 year old spend hours watching? The adult industry has always been a few steps ahead of popular media in terms of virality, addiction and kitsch. They're shaping the online generation, and not in a good way.

    • mnau 1 minute ago
      It's the classic "think about the children" argument used to push through plethora of other shit. See UK.

      I have very low trust in government (mine or other). We had these restrictions before. My country has been there, done that, for 41 years, not keen on repeat.

      And unlike corporations (for all their problems and there are many), you can't avoid that.

    • amarcheschi 15 minutes ago
      Social media algorithm are being used to push agenda from other countries, see the Cambridge analytica case, or push extremist content to youngsters since it generates much more engagement.

      Porn doesn't do this. It may have other issues, but it doesn't aim at maximing engagement with infinite scrolls and similar tactics. Let alone the content, who would watch porn for 12hrs/day? We already have the possibility to do that, and if somebody doesn't have mental issues, I'm of the opinion (s)he's not going to do that

      • bko 12 minutes ago
        [dead]
    • fabian2k 11 minutes ago
      Social media regulation isn't particularly popular here on HN, though it is certainly in other areas. You also won't find many people defending CSAM here as you imply.

      You also have to assume that people are not taking the purpose of these new measures at face value, but assume that there are other underlying motives and that the measures are broader than just simple pornography. And I don't think that assumption is unjustified.

      The ID-based measures like in the UK are a gigantic privacy nightmare as well.

      These measures are also not specific to kids, in the end they essentially always affect the access to this kind of content by adults as well. And some people think that is none of the government's business.

      An additional factor is that these measures are technically infeasibly without drastic measures. So they're either easy to circumvent, or would give the government enormous power and access over all kinds of communication.

  • nalekberov 39 minutes ago
    Except protection = control.
  • amelius 9 minutes ago
    Can we please _first_ ban violence in movies and games?
  • trallnag 59 minutes ago
    State parliaments pass controversial Youth Media Protection Act amendment. Parents can now "secure" devices for children with one click.
    • Humperdunkel 42 minutes ago
      Finally, the hard power switch makes a come back??!
      • BadBadJellyBean 28 minutes ago
        Breakers also make a nice klick. Or is it more of a thock?
  • DyslexicAtheist 42 minutes ago
    is this Lawful Interception?
  • theturtle 3 minutes ago
    [dead]
  • miroljub 32 minutes ago
    Germany is becoming more and more like North Korea.