SEMINAR ON THE RIGHTS AND SAFETY OF MINORS ONLINE
On March 16, the European People’s Party organized a webinar to debate among legislators, non-governmental organizations and technology companies on how to guarantee the rights and safety of children online.
The virtual meeting was attended by Leanda Barrington-Leach, director of International Advocacy and head of European affairs at the 5 Rights Foundation, Guillaume Landry, executive director of ECPAT International (End Child Sexual Exploitation), Almudena Lara, head of child safety at Google and the popular MEP Javier Zarzalejos.
The general secretary of the European People’s Party and promoter of the meeting, Antonio López-Istúriz, introduced the event making a special mention of the children who have fled Ukraine and those who are still in the country suffering from the bombings of the Russian army.
Zarzalejos began his speech by referring to the worrying data provided by the latest Europol report on the Assessment of the threat of serious and organized crime in the European Union (SOCTA, 2021). In the last year there has been an increase in the recruitment of minors for the purpose of sexual abuse (so-called “grooming”) on social networks and online gaming platforms. In addition, there has been an increase in the detection of material generated by children themselves, increasingly younger and often captured in the victim’s own bedroom. The report highlights that the increasing normalization of sexual behavior online is changing the attitude of young people when it comes to sharing explicit content with each other.
Faced with this reality, the MEP, like the rest of the participants, expressed his wish that the European Commission present its legislative proposal as soon as possible to fight against the sexual abuse of minors online. Although there is still no firm proposal, the Commission already announced in June 2020, by making public the Strategy for a more effective fight against the sexual abuse of minors, which aims to make mandatory the hitherto voluntary work carried out by the platforms at the time to detect and remove this type of content online. Likewise, the Commission announced the possible creation of a European center for preventing and combating the sexual abuse of minors, online and offline.
Meanwhile, while this new legislative package arrives, the MEP recalled that European legislators have already been taking measures aimed at combating the sexual abuse of minors online. Thus, for example, he referred to the recent repeal of certain provisions of the Electronic Privacy Directive that allow operators to implement voluntary practices for the detection of known and unknown material of child abuse, as well as cases of grooming. The recently processed reform of Europol’s mandate will also allow the European agency to play a greater role in the fight against this scourge.