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Justice Ministry Moves to Criminalize Digital Voyeurism, Pledges Swift Draft

A legal review follows a Cologne jogging case that exposed gaps in prosecuting secret recordings.

Overview

  • Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said she will quickly present a practicable bill to make secretly made voyeuristic recordings prosecutable.
  • Her ministry is reviewing options to regulate digital voyeurism in a way that is effective and consistent with rule‑of‑law standards.
  • State justice ministers will debate in November whether to amend the criminal code, with North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg proposing changes.
  • The Länder initiative targets recordings of clothed intimate areas and other non‑contact sexual aggressions that current law does not consistently cover.
  • A majority among the states is not yet secured, and the push is fueled by Yanni Gentsch’s Cologne case and petition despite an existing upskirting ban under Paragraph 184k.