Given the growing presence of child pornography and other forms of sexual abuse of minors on the internet, the European Commission has proposed new legislation to strengthen the detection and surveillance of this nature of content. The idea is to encourage cooperation of companies that offer online services to develop prevention strategies.
In Brussels, the magnitude of the rise in this content online is worrying. According to official figures, in Europe reports of online child sexual abuse went from 23,000 in 2010 to 725,000 in 2019. By 2021, 85 million cases were reported worldwide, 64% more than the previous year.
This has led the Commission to conclude that the current system, which consists of the detection and alerting of criminal content on a voluntary basis by companies, has become insufficient for the comprehensive tracking of this material. Proof of the fact is that in 2020, 95% of the flagged content received came from a single online service company, despite the fact that it was proven that the problem did not only affect one.
The proposal
The Commission’s new proposal seeks to continue Regulation (EU) 2021/1232, a provisional regulation aimed to fight against sexual abuse of minors online, which was approved last year.
The proposed legislation specifically targets child pornography and the solicitation of children for sexual purposes
The new legislation proposes clearer rules, stronger requirements and safeguards to detect illegal content using the least intrusive methods possible, in order to respect user privacy. The new Regulation will apply to internet service providers operating within the EU, such as data hosting companies, interpersonal communications services (such as messaging networks), app stores and internet access providers.
The detection obligations cover known material (re-uploaded photos and videos that have been previously identified as child sexual abuse material), new material (photos and videos not previously identified), and grooming (a practice where child sexual abuse offenders build a relationship of trust and emotional connection with children in order to manipulate and sexually exploit and abuse them).
New measures
First, the newly proposed Regulation includes a proposal for the creation of a Center within the EU specifically dedicated to handling sexual abuse of minors. This entity would facilitate the efforts of web service providers by providing reliable information on identified materials, receiving and analyzing complaints, and giving support to victims.
The proposed rules introduce an obligation for relevant online service providers to assess the risk of their services’ misuse for the dissemination of child sexual abuse materials or for the solicitation of children (“grooming”).
Similarly, Member States will need to designate national authorities in charge of reviewing the risk assessment and the mitigating measures proposed by the service provider to prevent child sexual abuse online. Where such authorities determine that a significant risk remains, they can ask a court or an independent administrative authority to issue a detection order for known or new child sexual abuse material or grooming to address any remaining significant risk in a targeted manner. Detection orders are limited in time, subject to strict procedural safeguards, and target a specific type of offence on a specific service.
These national authorities may issue removal orders if the material in question is not promptly removed. Similarly, providers must disable access to images and videos that cannot be removed, for example, because they come from a service that operates outside the EU.
It is now up to the European Parliament and Council to examine the proposal. If approved, it will replace the 2021 provisional regulation. The hope is that, with the reforms, there will be more effective joint action between online service companies, and in this way, the fight against the abuse of minors online will be more effective.
Translated from Spanish by Lucia K. Maher