Against violence: Both Basel cities tighten youth protection for films and computer games
Due to increasing depictions of violence, the governments of the two Basel cantons want to strengthen the protection of minors in films and electronic media. A uniform national age rating for films and other media is already under discussion.
With the law, which is identical for Basel-Stadt and Baselland, the two half-cantons are reacting to increasingly drastic depictions of violence, particularly in computer games and on DVD. The law therefore aims to extend the protection of minors from cinemas to other media and establish binding age limits. Sellers of videos, DVDs and computer, console or video games will be obliged to indicate the age restriction on the products and to adhere to it when selling them. However, the cantons are powerless when it comes to the Internet, as the two members of government admitted at a press conference on Wednesday. According to SDA, the Conference of Justice and Police Directors is already working on a uniform national age rating for films and other media.
