THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL TO COMBAT SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINORS, LED BY ZARZALEJOS, IS APPROVED IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament approved on November 14 with the support of all political groups the report on the Regulation establishing rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, which has led the PP MEP Javier Zarzalejos in the European Parliament.

This legislative proposal is motivated by the fact that in recent years there has been an exponential increase in such material circulating on the network, especially exacerbated during the pandemic. The prestigious Internet Watch Foundation claims that every two minutes a web page shows a child being sexually abused. In addition, almost three out of five (59%) reports of child sexual abuse lead to servers in EU member countries.

Thus, the Regulation aims to establish uniform rules so that all Internet service providers in the European Union have to assess the risks of misuse of their services for the dissemination of child sexual abuse material or for the grooming of children, establish measures to mitigate those risks and, where necessary, detect, report and remove such material.

If, following this assessment, providers identify a significant risk that their services could be misused for the dissemination of child sexual abuse material or for the grooming of children, they will have to implement mitigation measures to address that risk.

The Parliament has included an extensive list of such possible measures that providers may or may not decide to use, ranging from reinforcing the principle of safety from design or enabling parental controls, to the use of age verification systems for users.

In this regard, the Parliament has also included new obligations for platforms used mainly for the dissemination of pornographic content, which will have to implement, for example, mechanisms for verifying the age of their users, and for online video game chat rooms, which will have to reinforce the privacy mechanisms of their functionalities to prevent, for example, certain users from initiating unsolicited contacts with children.

Only in the event that providers fail to comply with these obligations, as a measure of last resort, a judicial authority may issue a screening order, which means that the provider will have to deploy certain technologies to detect this type of material, i.e. photos and videos containing child sexual abuse.

Balancing the protection of children in the digital world with respect for privacy

Zarzalejos stressed that “the European Parliament has struck a positive balance between the protection of children in the digital world and respect for fundamental rights, most especially that of privacy.”

The Parliament’s report has strengthened safeguards throughout the legislative text to ensure that there is no mass scanning or widespread web monitoring, that encrypted communications are protected and that, in short, it complies with existing European legislation and the case law of the European Court.

MEPs also support the creation of a European Union Centre for the Protection of Children and wanted to show their support and recognition for victims of sexual abuse by creating a permanent advisory body at the Centre to give them a voice and ensure that their views are taken into account.

“To date, only a few providers are collaborating.”

“To date, only a few Internet service providers are collaborating on a voluntary basis with the fight against online child sexual abuse. This regulation, a pioneer in the world, represents a paradigm shift,” said Zarzalejos.”

Once it is approved and enters into force, all Internet service providers will have to collaborate by implementing preventive measures to prevent child sexual abuse from even occurring.

“In cases where, unfortunately, the abuse has already occurred, providers will have the obligation to report these materials to the competent authorities so that the crimes can be prosecuted and the victims rescued, and they will also have the obligation to remove these contents from the network as soon as possible so that the victims do not suffer constant re-victimization,” Zarzalejos explained.