YNOT EUROPE – It looks as though Germany’s Green Party in North Rhine-Westphalia will consent to a proposed legal measure aimed at restricting minors from access to online media. The party’s Twitter page indicates although group remains against the bill, it will stop fighting. Therefore, it is very likely that a law will take effect 1 January 2011.

The blogosphere has been extremely vocal about this amendment, especially citing the impact of an age-rating requirement for each German website. In a nutshell, contents of websites will have to be divided into age groups ranging from G (general audiences) to NC-17 (no one under 17 years old allowed to view). Providers who fail to do rate their sites will risk a fine.

Because of the potentially high financial risk and potential complexity of implementation, there has been a wave of shutdown announcements. VZLog, for example, has announced it will shut down effective 31 December. IT expert Kristian Köhntopp already has shut down his website.