"Youth Protection" as a Criterion for Restricting the Right to Information: Experience of Ukraine and Germany

The article is devoted to the study of “youth protection” as a separate criterion for restricting the right to information. During the research a wide range of general scientific and special-legal methods of scientific cognition was used, in particular: the method of dialectical logic, comparative-legal, formal-legal and system-structural methods of scientific research. Their application allowed to explore this topic in the unity of legal form and social content. The conducted comparative legal study of the legislation and law enforcement practice of “youth protection in the field of mass media” of Ukraine and Germany allows to make the following conclusions and proposals to strengthen its regulatory and institutional support. The absence of a comprehensive mechanism for the protection of youth in the media in Ukraine is stated. Instead, there is a fragmented set of elements of this mechanism, which does not allow for systematic protection of young people from harmful information coming from different media. It is proved that the German model of “protection of youth in the media” is quite effective and consists of a normative component, primarily in the form of a special Jugendschutzgesetz - JuSchG (Federal Law “On Youth Protection”) and an institutional component, which is presented primarily by the BundesprüfstellefürjugendgefährdendeMedien (BPjM) (Federal Inspectorate for Mass Media Harmful to Youth). The necessity of strengthening normative and institutional support of “protection of young people in the field of mass media” in Ukraine is substantiated. It is proposed to develop and adopt a special law “On the Protection of Children in the Media”, which will be the legal basis for the protection of young people in this area in Ukraine. Institutional support is proposed to be strengthened through the creation of a separate state inspection for media that are harmful to children, which should be subordinated to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. This subject of public administration should ensure the implementation of the state policy on protection of young people from harmful information in the field of mass media