jugendschutz.net Annual Report 2023Deepfakes, hate speech, abuse: AI exacerbates risks for children and young people online
The annual report focuses on the dangers of generative artificial intelligence. Artificially generated content in the area of sexualized violence and bullying is identified as particularly problematic. This is because children and young people can also become victims of deep nudes. This is artificially generated content that appears to show real people naked or in pornographic situations. In some cases, these AI-generated images and videos can no longer be distinguished from real images. And even if the viewer can still recognize that it is a fake image, it is still very distressing for those affected that these types of images of them are in circulation.
Further information and assistance on this topic can be found in our topic area Sexualized violence through images.
The annual report also focuses on hate content, cybergrooming, problematic challenges and pranks as well as the gaming platform Roblox. For example, jugendschutz.net found that the war in the Middle East was instrumentalized for anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim hate propaganda. There are more and more posts on social media that incite young people to behave in a way that is harmful to their health. And children are becoming victims of cybergrooming and sexual violence, especially in video chats.
jugendschutz.net also criticizes the operators of internet services. According to jugendschutz.net, they do too little to adequately protect children and young people. They only react unreliably to reported violations and age verification does not take place at all or is easy to circumvent. As a result, the precautionary measures offered by platforms often remain ineffective.
Balance sheet of jugendschutz.net in 2023
In 2023, jugendschutz.net processed 7,645 infringement cases. Two thirds of these are related to sexualized violence. Twelve percent involved sex/pornography and 11 percent political extremism. Five percent were due to self-harming content and two percent to cyberbullying.
jugendschutz.net reported 3,210 infringements to providers and self-regulatory bodies with the aim of taking swift remedial action. 105 infringement cases were forwarded to the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM) to initiate supervisory proceedings. In addition, 252 cases were submitted to the KJM for indexing by the Federal Agency for the Protection of Children and Young Persons in the Media (BzKJ). jugendschutz.net sent 3,582 cases to the law enforcement authorities because child and youth pornographic content was distributed or there was a danger to life and limb. At the end of the year, 6,902 cases (90 %) were resolved.