Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Hesse's Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) calls for the storage of IP addresses in the fight against child abuse and child pornography. "It is a shame that our investigators in the fight against child abuse are denied the most urgent and important investigative tool - tracking the IP address at the time of the crime," said the minister on Monday in Wiesbaden. "There is an urgent need for action here."
The federal government must finally ensure that IP addresses for the criminal prosecution of the worst crimes must be kept longer by the telecommunications providers. This data is essential for the success of the investigation, stressed Beuth. "I will therefore once again urge the Federal Minister of the Interior to finally act at the upcoming conference of interior ministers."
Hesse's Justice Minister Roman Poseck (CDU) also emphasized the need to store IP addresses for the prosecution of serious crimes. Protecting IP addresses from being deleted too quickly to combat child pornography is essential. The judgment of the European Court of Justice opens up the possibility of requiring providers not to immediately delete IP addresses in the event of serious crimes, but to save them.
In September, the European Court of Justice set strict limits on the storage of telecommunications data to investigate criminal offenses in Germany. The judges ruled that the currently suspended data retention regulation in Germany was incompatible with EU law. At the same time, however, they stated that, in order to combat serious crime, IP addresses could be retained under certain conditions.
