Vol. 427 No. 6
28 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the proposals, if any, he has to introduce legislation to protect persons under 21 years of age from viewing material which might seriously impair their physical, mental and moral development, in view of the new EC broadcasting rules.
I assume that the Deputy is referring to Article 22 of EC Directive 89/552/EC of 3 October 1989 on television broadcasting activities, the so-called Transfrontier Broadcasting Directive. This Article provides that member states shall take appropriate measures to ensure that television broadcasts by broadcasters under their jurisdiction do not include programmes which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors, in particular those that involve pornography or gratuitous violence. The provision also extends to other programmes which are likely to impair the physical, mental or moral development of minors except where it is ensured, by selecting the time of the broadcast or by any technical measure, that minors in the area of the transmission will not normally hear or see such broadcasts.
