Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen wants to step up the prosecution of child abuse and tighten the penalties. To this end, the CDU politician is planning his own “law to prevent sexualised violence against children and to improve police data protection”. The Potsdam Ministry of the Interior confirmed a corresponding report in the “Märkische Oderzeitung”.
Accordingly, Stübgen plans to expand the ban on contact and proximity to protect children, but also to lower the prerequisites for surveillance of telecommunications or the introduction of “source TKÜ” to prevent serious crimes against children. Radio cell evaluation and the introduction of a regulation on the “covert takeover of third-party accounts” should also be possible in the future.
However, many of these points are measures with which his predecessor Karl-Heinz Schröter (SPD) had already failed when reforming the police law in the last legislative period. And this time, too, it could be a difficult birth.
“The fight against child abuse is an important concern for all coalition partners,” said SPD member of parliament Inka Gossmann-Reetz on request. However, the law will also have to be considered with regard to the proportionality of the planned encroachments on fundamental rights. “My impression is that Michael Stübgen is preparing a law-and-order election campaign for the next state elections.” In the coalition agreement, the CDU, SPD and Greens actually agreed not to touch the Brandenburg police law in this legislative period.
The state chair of the police union, Anita Kirsten, said it was important to “adapt laws to the state of the art so that there are no legal vacuums under the guise of data protection, in which the most serious crimes, from child abuse to terrorism, are committed.”
The most recent abuse complexes from North Rhine-Westphalia (T), which also move to Brandenburg, show the extent of these crimes in a frightening way. Legal framework conditions, such as access rights for data from messenger services and the technical equipment should only be one step.
“What we need to effectively and sustainably combat child abuse is a cross-sectoral action plan,” Kirsten said. “The entire state government must set an example here and work together across parties from the interior, judiciary, education and social sectors.”
The parliamentary group leader of the Greens, Petra Budke, also announced that he would take a “very critical” look at Stübgen’s draft law. It was finally agreed in the coalition agreement that they did not want to make a comprehensive amendment to the police law.
