Young people and criminal content: Restart project ensures information!

Young people and criminal content: Restart project ensures information!

In a worrying trend, many young people in Austria have to deal with the laws about the possession and the spread of sexual child abuse material. The police found that almost half of the confiscated laptops and cell phones come from minors. In 2024, 17 cases of young people were registered in Salzburg who unconsciously shared pictures and videos of the peers on the Internet, as Thomas Marecek from the Neustart Association reported. The aim is to educate these young people and prevent them from being condemned as sexual offenders, as this can have serious consequences for their future life. These measures are more urgent than ever because the punishments for such offenses were significantly tightened a year ago, especially according to the case of actor Florian Teichtmeister.

Enlightenment and prevention at restart

The Preliminary Aid Association Neustart has launched an innovative program that is aimed directly at endangered young people. In the past few months, 127 clients have already been included in the "Safe.net § 207a" program, with half of these young people being assigned after a diversion, the other half due to convictions. The program relies on intensive individual and group discussions to make it clear to those involved, which the legal consequences of their actions are. "We clarify the young people about the legal framework and encourage them to think about the effects of their behavior," explains Marecek. It is emphasized that many of the young people are not aware of their illegality if they spread nude photos or videos of friends on social media.

A particularly worrying aspect is that the majority of the participants are between 14 and 16 years old, with the older participants being minor when assigned. The program should not only raise awareness of the legal provisions, but also promote values ​​such as empathy towards the people depicted. According to the restart, many young people have "AHA experiences" through the investigation, which help them to better understand the severity of their actions. While some affected people came into conflict with the law because of the possession of child pornography, the possession and the spread of sexting content are also a common problem.

The new start initiative has the potential to decisively change the handling of young people with digital media and to help them take responsibility for their actions by clarifying the legal framework and social standards in order to avoid stigmatization as sexual offenders. This could not only have a positive impact on the young people themselves, but also their groups of friends, as they pass on their newly learned knowledge.