Germany becoming even stricter on Violence in Games
Submitted by Dr. Andreas Lober / Carine Neumüller, LL.M.
Germany has been known for strict legislation regarding violence in games for a long time, but recent changes will make live even harder for games companies.
According to the latest changes, media which predominantly contains exceptionally realistic, gruel and lurid images of violence as an end in itself is now indexed, i.e. subject to severe restrictions on distribution and advertising (new Section 15 of the Protection of Young Persons Act). For example, these games must not be sold to underage persons. This kind of media is indexed per se, i.e. it does not even have to assessed and rated by the supreme state authority which is generally responsible for indexing (the so-called “Bundesprüfstelle”).
Additionally, the supreme state authority now also has to index media which contain acts of violence like murder and mass killings as ends in themselves as well as media in which self-administered justice is presented as a successful and proven means for serving justice (new Section 18 of the Protection of Young Persons Act). This kind of media now has to be assessed, rated and put on a list of media which is generally considered as dangerous for young persons.
Unfortunately, the new law is not very precise and it is therefore open to various interpretations. However, many strategy games do contain scenes of mass killings or other scenes of violence but these games should clearly not be indexed (and generally have not been considered too problematic so far). Also, the new provisions of the Act will evidently lead to great legal uncertainty because nobody can really tell when a scene of violence is “exceptionally realistic” or just “realistic”.