2024-07-07 03:13:12
The Teichtmeister case has brought into focus the issue of possession of child sexual abuse images. Penalties for this have increased. However, half of those reported under section 207a of the Criminal Code were not adults who specifically obtained relevant information from the Internet or the dark web, but young people who were by no means child offenders. Neustart, the probation service association, develops sex and social education programs for them.
“The problem of young people sending photos is different from that of ‘typical’ sex offenders,” emphasizes Herbert Janusch, head of the Neustart Leoben department. These young people, mostly men, suddenly find themselves suspected of possessing, producing or even distributing child abuse material, having received questionable photos or videos via social media and saving them on their phones, or filming and forwarding explicit Photos – examples of their girlfriends. If law enforcement becomes aware of this, these young men are suddenly faced with prosecutorial investigations and sometimes home raids, and they have to worry regarding being labeled as sex offenders if convicted.
For this group of people, Janusch and two of his Neustart employees, Elvir Kujovic and Kerstin Memisevic, as well as Thomas Mühlbacher, head of the Leoben prosecutor’s office and the central social work department, developed a model to prevent this from happening and ensure that these people are protected The person affected should be able to successfully continue their education or career. The reactivation program “sicher.net § 207a” is typically used when a youth is assigned to probation services following being convicted of a suspended matter or diversion for possessing or distributing child abuse material. The program lasts six months and minors receive training in media literacy, how to deal with pornographic content, and the legal framework surrounding depictions of abuse.
In Leoben you’ve gone one step further. There they hope to avoid reporting under section 207a of the Criminal Code for young people who are clearly not child offenders, criminal trials and the associated consequences. As part of the investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office assigned them to Neustart, where they performed “sicher.net § 207a” procedures. If the case is successful, the prosecution will withdraw the prosecution.
Since the first group of five participants started working in October 2023, a total of 16 boys aged between 14 and 19 have benefited, with the eldest being 16 when he committed the crime. The second group received a written “certificate” from Neustart at the end of June.
One of them is 17-year-old Daniel (pseudonym, note) from the Leoben district, who was willing to tell the Courier and the APA regarding his experience with “sicher.net § 207a”. “What I imagined was completely different from what it actually was,” he said. Neustart’s employees treat him equally: “The first two appointments were tough, the others were fun.” Five hours – the duration of an appointment – “is too long. The attention span is It went down in the last two hours,” Daniel complained.
The 17-year-old reported that he received a video on his phone of a girl violating Article 207a StGB and kept the video for “15 minutes. I then deleted the video and Tell her I understand. He doesn’t know the consequences: “I’m surprised you were convicted of this. ” In that regard, he “gained a lot” from the restart. Online behavior and media literacy were never discussed in school: “You might forget regarding that and it was never an issue.” Looking back, he realizes, “It would have been cool if you did that in school.”
When asked to what extent his behavior has changed when it comes to dealing with social media and interacting on various platforms, Daniel said: “I don’t write comments or you will get reported.” He is now more cautious regarding images – Even those images related to himself.
“For everyone who worked with us on this successful project, there was never a discussion in schools that the Internet was not a legal vacuum,” restart expert Kuchowicz emphasized to the Courier Journal and APA. In this context, the aim was first of all to teach the boys to “clarify the norms”: “Of course it is unpleasant because sex is associated with shame.” In total, 16 participants “were not typical probation service clients”: “They were all in life .These are well-anchored young people, they are in training, they have jobs, they are in school.”
“We were very careful to ensure that no one in the team was infected,” emphasizes Kujovic’s colleague Memisevic. When it comes to porn expertise, they “clarified the difference between reality and fiction and dealt with key content.”
Another focus of the “sicher.net § 207a” project is to put young people in the perspective of victims and discuss common online sexual crimes and cyberbullying, as well as self-portrayals online. Young people in Leoben must also “rewrite” hate posts submitted to them so that they no longer constitute incitement to hatred.
Incidentally, despite the excitement in the media and political circles regarding high-profile cases, the number of convictions under section 207a of the Criminal Code alone has not increased. This is evident from data from the Ministry of Justice. As a result, in 2022, courts found 55 teenagers, 62 young people aged between 18 and 21, and 288 adults guilty of possessing, producing or distributing images of child sexual abuse. Last year there were 33 teenagers, 56 young adults and 231 adults. In the first half of 2024, these three age groups had 23, 21 and 101 convictions recorded under Article 207a of the Criminal Code alone.
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