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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 12900 | 17 April 2012
Violent and extreme pornography
1. The Committee of Ministers has examined
with interest Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1981 (2011)
on "Violent and extreme pornography", which it has referred to the
European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC), the Steering Committee
on the Media and New Communication Services (CDMC) and the Executive
Council of the European Audiovisual Observatory for information
and possible comments.
2. The Committee of Ministers shares the Assembly's concern about
the public's increased access to violent and extreme pornographic
material, especially via the Internet, and its adverse effects on
human dignity.
3. In this connection, the Committee of Ministers invites the
member States which have not yet done so to sign and ratify the
Council of Europe Conventions on Combating Violence against Women
and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210), the Protection of Children
against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201), and
Cybercrime (ETS No. 185).
4. Legislation and regulations relating to violent and extreme
pornography should be in line with Article 10 of the European Convention
of Human Rights and the relevant case law of the European Court
of Human Rights. The Committee of Ministers draws attention to its
Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)5 to member States on measures to protect
children against harmful content and behaviour and to promote their
active participation in the new information and communications environment.
It also refers to its guidelines for online games providers, drawn
up by the Council of Europe in co-operation with the Interactive
Software Federation of Europe, and its Recommendations Rec(97)19
on the portrayal of violence in the electronic media and Rec(89)7 concerning
principles on the distribution of videograms having a violent, brutal
or pornographic content.
5. Being firmly convinced that relevant standards and laws concerning
illegal or harmful content and the protection of children and adolescents
as well as human dignity should be applied in a consistent manner,
the Committee of Ministers instructs the Steering Committee on Media
and Information Society (CDMSI) to discuss the feasibility of a
comparative analysis of the laws and regulations applying to forms
of violent and extreme pornography in member States and, on this
basis, consider whether there is scope for a more harmonised approach,
in particular as regards responses to the distribution of violent
and extreme pornographic material on the Internet.
6. With regard to the recommendation to ask the European Audiovisual
Observatory to conduct a study on the feasibility of a common system
of classification and content descriptors, the Committee of Ministers
informs the Assembly that the Observatory does not currently have
the necessary resources or all the skills required to carry out
such a study. Furthermore, such a task would not fall entirely within
the Observatory's remit, which is "to collect and process information
and statistics on the audiovisual sector excluding any standard-setting
or regulatory activities" (see Article 1.2 of the Statute of the
European Audiovisual Observatory).