Law on Audiovisual Media Services, Protection of Minors

Article 59 requires a provider of an audiovisual media service on demand to make content that could impair a minor's physical, health-related, moral, mental, intellectual, emotional or social development available only in a way least likely for minors to ordinarily encounter it, using measures that include content categorisation and age-verification tools.

It requires content that could seriously impair that development, including pornography or gratuitous depiction of violence, to be made available only behind the highest level of technical protection, such as a special code or identity verification. Personal data of a minor collected through either measure may not be processed for commercial purposes such as direct marketing, profiling, or targeted behavioural advertising.

Article 130 imposes a parallel duty on a video-sharing platform provider to establish and apply an age-verification system for platform users in relation to content that could endanger a minor's psychological, physical or moral development, among the protective measures the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services oversees. The Law was published on 11 June 2024 and entered into force on 19 June 2024.

Article 187 fines a legal person 500 to 20,000 euros, and sets lower tiers for a responsible person in a legal entity, a natural person, or an entrepreneur, for failing to comply with either duty, as a misdemeanor rather than a criminal offense.