Ensuring a robust legal framework is essential to combatting child sexual abuse online. Legislative instruments play a vital role in establishing consistent and uniform rules across EU Member States, providing legal certainty for all actors involved as well as safeguarding the protection of fundamental rights at stake.
The main legislative instruments (existing and proposed) to prevent and combat child sexual abuse are:
- Proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse
- Interim Regulation
- Directive 2011/93/EU to strengthen criminal law on child sexual abuse and its proposed recast
Proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse
On 11 May 2022, the Commission proposed a Regulation on preventing and combatting the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children to require online services providers to detect and report child sexual abuse material and grooming. This new legislation aims to help EU countries detect and report child sexual abuse online, prevent it from taking place and support victims of child sexual abuse.
The new rules will safeguard children by establishing:
- mandatory risk assessments
- targeted detection obligations (based on a detection order)
- stronger safeguards concerning detection
- clear reporting obligations
- effective removal of forbidden content
- lower risks of exposing children to grooming
- solid oversight mechanisms and judicial redress
A new independent EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse (EU Centre) will facilitate the efforts of service providers by acting as a hub of expertise, providing reliable information on identified material, receiving and analysing service provider inputs to avoid erroneous reports from reaching law enforcement, swiftly forwarding relevant reports for law enforcement action and by providing support to victims.
The regulation is currently being negotiated by the Council and the European Parliament; the European Parliament adopted its position on the proposal on 16 November 2023. The Council reached its position on 13 November 2025.
Learn more about the proposed legislation in the Frequently Asked Questions section.
Interim Regulation
On 14 July 2021 the Commission adopted an interim Regulation to allow providers of electronic communications services to continue their voluntary practices to detect child sexual abuse in their systems beyond 21 December 2020. The interim Regulation puts in place a temporary and strictly limited derogation from the application of some provisions of the e-Privacy Directive, with the aim of detecting, reporting and removing child sexual abuse.
Following the expiry of the interim Regulation on 3 April 2026, the European Parliament and the Council agreed to restore the temporary regime in July 2026. The reinstated rules allow providers to continue voluntarily detecting, reporting and removing child sexual abuse online, while ensuring appropriate safeguards. They will apply until 3 April 2028, allowing negotiations on the long-term framework to be concluded.
The interim Regulation requires providers to communicate to the Commission the names of organisations acting in the public interest to which they report online child sexual abuse. They are also obliged to submit a report on the processing of personal data under this Regulation. According to the information received by the Commission, online service providers report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
To communicate the required information, or ask for more information, please use the address: HOME-FIGHT-AGAINST-CSA
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (HOME-FIGHT-AGAINST-CSA[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).
EU Member States are required to make publicly available and submit to the Commission reports with statistics referring to online child sexual abuse on an annual basis.
Recast of Directive 2011/93/EU to strengthen criminal law
On 6 February 2024, the Commission proposed a recast of Directive EU 2011/93 to strengthen the EU criminal law framework on child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. On 22 June 2026, the European Parliament and Council reached a political agreement on the proposal, marking a major step forward in strengthening the protection of children.
The agreed text addresses new challenges, improves investigation and prosecution, strengthens prevention and assistance to victims and promotes better coordination in the fight against child sexual abuse. The key points of the updated common rules are:
- First EU-wide definition of consent: The text introduces a definition of non-consensual sexual acts, strengthening the protection for children who have reached the age of sexual consent. Consent must be freely given, voluntary, and may be withdrawn at any time before or during the act. The silence or passivity of the victim can never be treated as consent.
- New offences addressing technological developments: The new rules criminalise emerging forms of child sexual abuse facilitated by technology, such as the production and sharing of AI-generated material and deepfakes, the livestreaming of child sexual abuse, sexual extortion, instruction manuals for offenders, and AI systems designed or adapted specifically to produce child sexual abuse material. Protection against grooming for the purpose of obtaining child sexual abuse material is extended to children who have reached the age of sexual consent in cases involving coercion or threats, or where the offender impersonates a peer.
- Extended limitation periods: The new rules give victims more time to report child sexual abuse and exploitation to the authorities and seek justice, recognising that many victims disclose the abuse only years later. For the most serious offences, such as rape, the limitation period will extend until the victim reaches the age of 50. For other serious offences covered by the Directive, it will extend until the victim reaches between 33 and 38 years of age, depending on the offence.
- Reinforced rules on prevention: The text introduces mandatory criminal-record checks for professional and organised voluntary activities involving direct and regular contact with children. It also requires professionals to report cases where a child is in serious and imminent danger and strengthens child protection measures in schools, sports clubs, and religious, healthcare, and social care settings.
- Stronger support for victims: The new rules ensure that child victims have access to targeted, age-appropriate support, including healthcare, helplines and referral centres. They also strengthen victims' right to claim full compensation for the harm suffered.
The revised Directive must now be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council before entering into force.