Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) wants to criminalize photos of peeping Toms from public saunas. She announced this to the over the weekend Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung (WALNUT) to. She wants to close a “protection gap”.
“No woman has to put up with being made the object of peeping Tom photos just because her smartphone with a camera is always at hand. Our state has a responsibility to protect here,” Hubig said WALNUT.
Hubig thus addresses the concerns of one Petition started by two young women from Leipzig became. Under the title: “Make secret nude recordings a criminal offense – protection from sauna voyeurs, NOW!” They demand a law “that protects our bodies from unwanted nude photos – especially in publicly accessible areas”.
In the sauna, the two women noticed a man pointing his cell phone camera at them. They called a sauna employee and then the police, who confiscated the cell phone. However, the public prosecutor’s office later announced that the filming “even if it is to be frowned upon – was not a criminal offense.” The two women then started their petition, which has already been signed over 62,000 times.
Our state has a responsibility to protect here
Stefanie Hubig, SPD, Federal Minister of Justice
In fact, the current criminal norms against digital voyeurism when filming in a public sauna do not apply. The “violation of the most personal area of life by taking pictures” (paragraph 201a) only covers unauthorized recordings “in an apartment or a room that is particularly protected from viewing”. Recordings in a public sauna are not included.
No case of upskirting or downblousing
The “injury to the intimate area through taking pictures” (paragraph 184k) does not fit either. This is about “upskirting”, i.e. under-the-skirt films, or “downblousing”, in-the-cleavage films. It is necessary that the sexual organs are “protected from view” – which is not the case in the sauna.
The use of cameras is generally expressly prohibited in saunas. However, anyone who violates these terms of use does not commit trespass (Section 123). According to this, only those who break into a protected area or who do not move away when asked to do so are liable to prosecution. Not every violation of the house rules is a trespass.
Protecting your own image
According to the current legal situation, the most appropriate protection is one’s own image, which is regulated in the Art Copyright Act. However, only those who “distribute or publicly display” photos and videos of other people without authorization are liable to prosecution. According to this standard, simply filming is not a criminal offense.
However, filming strangers in the sauna is not legal, even if it is repeatedly claimed. Since personal rights are clearly being violated here, those affected can claim injunction and compensation under civil law. However, you have to take care of this yourself and also bear the cost risk if a lawsuit in civil court is rejected. In criminal prosecution, on the other hand, the police take over the investigation and the public prosecutor files charges. The victims have no risk of costs.
Hubig wants to close the gaps in the punishment of digital voyeurism in a legislative package that the ministry is working on “high pressure”. The so-called Digital Violence Protection Actwhich is not about acts of violence, is intended to cover, in addition to sexual deepfakes, the case that the jogger Yanni Gentsch made public last year and denounced in a petition: A cyclist followed her and constantly filmed her butt. Here, too, the police declared that the man’s behavior was not a criminal offense, whereupon Yanni Gentsch also started a petition that has already been signed over 161,000 times. Minister Hubig met with Gentsch and promised to take care of her concerns.
Dampener from the Conference of Justice Ministers
Hubig suffered a minor setback in November at the Justice Ministers Conference. There, the proposal to generally criminalize voyeuristic recordings was rejected by the majority, particularly by the CDU/CSU-led justice ministries. Saxony’s Minister Constanze Geiert (CDU) said at the final press conference: “Of course such behavior is reprehensible and morally condemnable. But criminal law is not a super-moral authority.”
Hubig is obviously still pursuing her project. When it comes to criminal laws, it does not need the approval of the states. However, it is still unclear whether the coalition partner CDU/CSU in the Bundestag will support Hubig’s plans.
What the mood is currently will soon become clear in the Federal Council. A draft resolution from Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia will be discussed there on Friday, which calls for unauthorized “sexually motivated image recordings” to be criminalized.