Youth Protection Report 2024
As noted in the communications reports published in previous years, the self-regulatory system for the protection of minors from audiovisual content that may impair minors’ development was introduced in response to Directive (EU) 2018/1808 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 amending Directive 2010/13/EU on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media Services Directive, AVMSD).
The Austrian legislative framework was amended (Federal Law Gazette I No. 150/2020) to incorporate these EU provisions. Core provisions set out the protection to be guaranteed for minors by providers of audiovisual media services, as well as the corresponding duties of the self-regulatory body. These provisions are found in Art. 39 of the Audiovisual Media Services Act (AMD-G) and Art. 10a of the ORF Act (ORF-G). Regulations pertaining to self-regulatory bodies and the funding of a self-regulatory body for the purposes of youth protection by the Republic of Austria have been specified in Art. 32a and Art. 32b of the KommAustria Act (KOG).
A self-regulatory body has therefore been partially tasked with the establishment of (and verification of compliance with) an industry-wide youth protection system, which is based on the aims of the amended AVMSD. The effectiveness of this self-regulatory system is subject to a subsequent audit by KommAustria, as is required by various reporting duties (activity report pursuant to Art. 32a Par. 2 No. 5 KOG; effectiveness report pursuant to Art. 32b Par. 4 KOG). KommAustria is to publish an activity report (Art. 19 KOG) presenting its assessment of and recommendations for effectiveness.”