OPP Meeting Summary: Justice and Home Affairs Council - Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse (19 October 2023)

A summary of the progress report was made available.

online services should block child sexual abuse material (CSAM);
the proposed Regulation should propose an effective EU framework;
the Regulation would also permit the competent authorities from the Member States (MS) to issue providers orders to remove, block, delist or detect CSAM;
the proposal included the creation of an EU agency to prevent and combat child sexual abuse;
their role would be to process reports received from providers and support national authorities in their efforts to prevent and combat child sexual abuse;
the temporary legislation allowed service providers to report CSAM in a voluntary fashion;
this temporary legislation was set to expire in August 2024;
the Spanish Presidency worked really hard to reach a compromise;
concerns were raised by MS and the scope was reduced to known CSAM;
believed the Council was close to a compromise and the Presidency wished to maintain the impetus;
hoped that such a compromise would reach COREPER in the coming days;
additional safeguards were added to the text to protect encryption and cybersecurity;
made it clear that detection orders would always be a last-resort solution;
was confident that the work done by previous Presidencies provided a good basis for an agreement;
the Parliament (EP) planned to adopt its Report in the December Plenary Sitting.

Ylva Johansson, Commissioner for Home Affairs

hoped the Council would reach a general approach soon;
regretted the exclusion of new CSAM and grooming from the text but appreciated the efforts to reach an agreement;
exampled that people were more sensitive to protection tools against crimes committed in the public sphere but that child sexual abuse was a silent crime;
the main starting point for law enforcement investigations started with a report from the internet companies;
without the detection tools the previous year, there were more than 5 million attempts at grooming children in the EU;
insisted that children could not protect themselves but that it was the role of this legislation;
urged MS to supprot the Spanish Presidency in their effort to reach a general approach;
the UK recently adopted a piece of legislation similar to the one proposed by the Commission;
the EU should not become a safe heaven for child molesters.

Ireland was a strong supporter of this Regulation;
agreed that all these children being abused did not have any means to defend themselves but that the EU had the opportunity to create a precedent;
regretted the reduction of the scope but understood the need to find a compromise;
this file should be concluded before the end of the legislative term.

welcomed the Commission's proposal as it would greatly contribute to preventing and combating child sexual abuse;
the proposal should be brought forward as an urgent priority;
Cyprus stood ready to support the Presidency's proposal but only if the scope of the Regulation reflected the conditions that all necessary would be taken regarding the review and the inclusion of detection issues;
voluntary collaboration with the providers should be maintained.

agreed that the voluntary detection scheme should be maintained;
the justice and police authorities would have an effective with this.

child sexual abuse should receive a strong and swift response;
it would be important to protect children against the creation of backdoors for end-to-end encryption (E2EE).

thanked the Presidency for all the progress made;
was satisfied with the latest text of the Presidency as to detection orders and the scope;
hoped a partial general approach could be reached in the coming weeks;
fully agreed with the Irish position.

thanked the Presidency for all the work it's carried out on this file;
the voluntary detection orders should continue to apply;
believed it was also important to protect encrypted communications.

supported the widest possible scope to provide the best possible environment for law enforcement.

continued to support the Commission's proposal;
child sexual abuse remained at the top of the priorities at the national level;
appreciated the work of the Presidency to reach a compromise and supported the latest text.

described child sexual abuse as an ascending threat that Romania was worried about;
regretted the reduction of the scope such as grooming;
believed these issues were key to the effectiveness of the Regulation;
would like to complete the negotiations as soon as possible and believed that the solutions identified by the presidency were acceptable.

more obligations should be put on the providers and believed a lot more work was needed on this file.

supported to keep detection order for new CSAM and grooming in the compromise.

acknowledged that the spread of CSAM on the internet became worse;
Sweden believed that certain aspects of legal certainty and personal integrity should be reinforced to achieve the right balance in the proposal.

thanked the Presidency for their work on this file;
protecting children was a priority for Hungary;
believed the EU should use every tool to protect children and to give every possibility to law enforcement to detect and investigate such crimes;
wished to adopt this text as soon as possible.

a balance should be struck between preventing crimes from occuring and protecting people's privacy.

welcomed the Presidency's wish to reach a partial general approach as the text still needed work;
the temporary Regulation would expire in August 2024, one that allowed the voluntary detection measures;
these voluntary measures were often a starting place for the police to investigate such acts;
encouraged the Presidency to prolong this temporary Regulation.

examined the right balance between law enforcement and privacy;
Belgium supported the work of the Spanish Presidency.

did not believe there was an issue with the proposal and supported it;
the new legislation should not be used for currently unknown CSAM or grooming;
Italy was in favour of the quickest approval possible of this Regulation.

the text should strike the right balance between ensuring the protection of children from sexual abuse and protecting citizens' fundamental rights to privacy.

was hopeful the work would be carried out in the next weeks for this Regulation to enter into force as soon as possible.

a comprise should be found as soon as possible;
supported the Presidency and the Commission in their work.

Ylva Johansson, Commissioner for Home Affairs

the Eurobarometer showed that 80% of respondents wished to see mandatory detection from the service providers as well as in encrypted communications.

Related Procedure(s)

See all

Combating child sexual abuse online

Child Guarantee & Rights of the Child

Data Protection & Privacy

Digital Content

Electronic Communications & ICT

Enforcement & Cooperation

Internet Governance

Online Platforms

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