Nibel
Member
Blame Canada if old
Source
Fuck us
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GAF Update #1
Source
Fuck us
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GAF Update #1
I edited my first post to make it a bit less harsh. Didn't change the content, though.
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I edited my post to respond to criticism.
Nintendo is not being 100% honest with their customers here and here’s why.
“Under German law, content rated 18+ must be made available only at night.”
This sentence is not entirely true. Nintendo is referring to a law that was created for television stations. The law basically states that certain kinds of content must not be played/shown during the day. This is usually meant for movies rated 16+ and movies rated 18+. Depending on the rating, tv stations can only show them at night.
Nintendo defines “at night” with “the time between 10pm to 4am”. This is a time frame that can not be found in any documents. The only official time frames available are “10pm to 6am” and “11pm to 6am”. It is, indeed, recommended that tv stations and content providers consider the fact that children and teenagers may be watching TV up until 11pm and that they might be awake before 6am. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the time frame mentioned by Nintendo does not exist.
I am not sure why Nintendo mentions the USK in all of this because they don’t make laws. They rate the video games.
Another problem I have with Nintendo’s statement is that they make it look like there’s one and only one option available. This is not true. The law states that content providers must make sure that 16+ and 18+ rated content must not be made available to minors but it gives the content provider two options. We’ve mentioned the first option, which is allowing access only during night time.
The other one is to control access “through technical or other means”. There are various ways to prove your age without actually being at a certain place in Germany. I’ve talked about them a bit in other Threads but I’ll repeat some of them here. In Germany, we have something called “Post Ident”. You print out a form that basically says “I’m 18, and things sent to me will only be in the hands of adults”, take that to your local post office, show them your government issued ID card and they’ll confirm that you’re the person that signed the thing and that you’re 18. This thing then gets send to the person who wants to know if you’re really 18 and is considered to be proof.
Another thing is age verification through Schufa. Schufa usually handles credit (ratings) in Germany but they can also confirm your age. This is being done by tobacco companies, for example, and relatively uncomplicated. You just give them your name, address and a signature and the Schufa will tell them if you’re 18 or not.
According to websites from the manufacturers, PayTV requires you to enter a code every single time you want to watch a movie that’s not meant for minors and this also seems to be complying with the law.
Now some people think that the other way (technical or other means to ensure no minor gets to see the content) is not really a solution for Nintendo since they’re not 100% secure. I’d argue that the law states that it should be made “very hard or impossible” for minors to access the content and that there’s some room for failure. There’s this agency called KJM and they give some recommendations and ideas on their website - neither are binding, of course.
It really isn’t our problem if it takes a lot of effort to implement a good system, and Nintendo didn’t say “it’s the easiest way for us”, they said it’s the only way, which - to me - is something somewhere between horribly misleading and a straight up lie.
Sources, links and stuff:
Nintendo’s time frame is off: §5 JMStV (4) “zwischen 23 Uhr und 6 Uhr” (Translation: “between 11pm and 6am”& “zwischen 22 Uhr und 6 Uhr” (Translation: “between 10pm and 6am”
Nintendo is lying about the law requiring this. The law lists two options, one of which being the quoted time frame, the other one being this: Nintendo has, “through technical or other means”, “make it impossible or significantly harder” to see the content. Source: §5 JMStV (3) 1.
http://www.kjm-online.de/files/pdf1/Kriterienraster_technische_Mittel.pdf
