Laurens, the US asks for ID for a few bottles of cider, so why not ask the same for violent video games?
Not that I think it’s the solution but don’t blame Germany here. Not to mention that doesn’t explain why the move also affected austrian and swiss citizens, or why Flickr didn’t tell them that there were changes afoot, or what laws exactly they try to comply with… All very suspicious!!

I do agree that the political debate about violent video games doesn’t help companies become confident in the German market. But as with all political debates, people are talking a lot and there are millions of people opposing these plans. It is far away from being even close to becoming a law. And stupid politicians with insane plans are not a German problem only.

While I think that the German law is probably not as yahoo-friendly as elsewhere (after all, we impose the responsibility on the content provider as well, not only on the user who uploaded the photo), just filtering everything that might be considered possibly and remotely offensive somewhere else in the universe is the behavior of a pouting four-year-old and about the worst reaction I can think of. A “not for Germany” flag that would be set on a per-case basis (once they gain knowledge of a particular, illegal, picture) would have made much more sense for example. And it wouldn’t bear the bitter taste of censorship.

Just like all the talk about turning the sale of violent games to minors into a crime. In effect, that will mean that companies are going to take the safe route and not sell them at all in Germany, because that is the only way to be sure safe asking everyone for an ID (which, if that would happen, is not a country I would want to be living in either).