Child sexual abuse is a growing problem, and if EU countries act alone or in an uncoordinated way, they cannot address it effectively. A single EU country cannot prevent child sexual abuse material from circulating the internet without cooperating with private online service provides // Internet companies working in several EU countries. We need a coherent system for the whole EU.
Voluntary reporting of child sexual abuse by online service providers varies from company to company. Some service providers take comprehensive action. Some take no action at all. These gaps in reporting mean that abuse continues undetected. Because detection is voluntary, companies may decide to change their policies at any time, hindering authorities’ efforts to fight child sexual abuse.
With this new legislation, the European Commission aims to ensure effective public−private cooperation across the EU to keep children safe from online predators, bring offenders to justice, and provide timely and adequate support to victims.
Online service providers are often the only ones able to detect abuse, which takes place hidden from public view, among networks of offenders that can include hundreds of thousands of users. If service providers ignore this, it is likely that no-one will be able to identify and help the victims. Already today in some EU countries, up to 80% of investigations are launched due to reports from service providers.
The internet has given offenders a new way of approaching children. Predators contact children on social media, gaming platforms and chats and lure them into producing compromising images of themselves or into offline meetings. Children are spending more time online than ever before, increasing the risk of coming in contact with online predators. Yet most services do not distinguish between child and adult users, treating children as if they were internet-savvy grown-ups able to protect themselves – which evidently they are not. Many services turn a blind eye to the misuse of their platforms to share child sexual abuse images and videos.
The detection of child sexual abuse will closely follow existing data protection rules and rules on privacy of communication. Personal data will be processed in line with the General Data Protection Regulation. The proposed legislation has built-in safeguards in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the case law of the European Court of Justice.
The new proposal establishes that the data processed to detect child sexual abuse online is limited only to what is necessary. In principle, it is deleted immediately and forever, unless strictly necessary for the purposes listed in the Regulation.
The Regulation includes safeguards to ensure that the detection systems are used only to detect and report online child sexual abuse, as well as to ensure transparency and judicial redress. The EU centre to prevent and combat child sexual abuse is a key safeguard that will ensure the transparency of the detection process and facilitate access to the least privacy intrusive detection technology.
Finally, preventing the circulation of child sexual abuse material aims to protect victims’ privacy and remove a constant source of trauma for them.
The EU centre will work with companies and law enforcement to help them exchange information and best practices, providing oversight, transparency and accountability. The centre will support:
- companies by providing them with a database of indicators to detect online child sexual abuse
- law enforcement so they can act on reports and save children
- EU countries in preventing online child sexual abuse and helping victims
The centre will also work closely with partners outside the EU, including similar centres in the US, Canada and Australia.
Learn more about the EU centre to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.
The Directive is aimed at harmonising the criminal legislation of EU countries, while the proposed Regulation will be directly applicable, defining the responsibilities of digital service providers. In this respect, there is no overlap between the two instruments.
The new proposal supports the implementation of prevention and support measures included in the Directive. This will be one of the main roles of the EU centre to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.
Learn more about the EU centre to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.
The European Commission will work together with relevant stakeholders from the public and private sector to increase cooperation and exchange of best practices under the prevention network of practitioners and researchers. The EU centre to prevent and combat child sexual abuse will have a key role in boosting prevention efforts. The centre will cooperate with the prevention network but also act as a counterpart for similar centres around the world.
We are also working to improve the protection of children from sexual abuse globally by cooperating with the WeProtect Global Alliance.
In addition, we will continue to fund initiatives on enhancing prevention.
Together with the legislative proposal, the Commission will also adopt a renewed strategy for a better internet for children to further support and protect children online.
If adopted, the Digital Services Act aims to create a harmonised baseline for addressing all illegal content in general. However, due to its general and horizontal nature, it addresses the issue of child sexual abuse only partially. Child sexual abuse material and illegal online content should be addressed in a reactive manner, on a case-by-case basis. Preventing the dissemination and circulation of known child sexual abuse material requires a more systematic and targeted approach.
It is clear that the voluntary approach does not work. One company accounts for 95% of all child sexual abuse reports globally, and five companies account for 99% of all reports. Meanwhile, there are more than 1 600 companies registered in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alone.
Mandatory detection aims to improve the fight against child sexual abuse not just in the EU but also around the world. It is also an opportunity to determine the minimum information that needs to be included in reports, so they are actionable for law enforcement. This could improve reporting standards globally.