EU Acts to Bridge Legal Gap in Combatting Online Abuse

New action has been taken by the EU to help protect children from online abuse.

This comes after EU member states gave the final green light to a regulation allowing online service providers to resume voluntary detection and removal of child sexual abuse material on their platforms.

 The measure, albeit only temporary, aims to protect children while a long-term legislative framework is under negotiation.

The EU said on Friday that voluntary activities by online providers are “crucial” as they help identify, investigate and prosecute offenders.

A council spokesman said, “They contribute to rescuing victims, preventing further abuse and reducing the spread of child sexual abuse online.”

Reacting, Jim O’Callaghan, Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration of Ireland, said, “Today is an important day for the protection of children.”

“With the green light given, we have moved quickly to address the legal gap that existed when the derogation to the ePrivacy Regulation lapsed in April.

“The decision taken by the Parliament earlier this month, and by the Council today, allows online providers to resume their voluntary efforts to fight the spread of child sexual abuse material online.

“This is the right thing to do, and I am confident that the same sense of responsibility will guide us in negotiating long-term rules for the detection of child sexual abuse online. The protection of children must be our first concern.”

The move allows online service providers to detect online child sexual abuse on their services, as well as to report and remove it.

Further reaction comes from the EPP Group which says it closes the “dangerous legal vacuum that has left children unprotected online for over three months.”

A spokesman said that while the Council’s endorsement of the European Parliament’s position clears the final hurdle for the immediate entry into force of the Interim Regulation, the EPP “stresses that the temporary fix is still far from the comprehensive solution needed.”

MEP Javier Zarzalejos, EPP Group spokesman on the issue, said, “The EPP Group has been clear from the very beginning: this dangerous legal vacuum should have been avoided.

“While others played political games and delayed the process with amendments, our priority remained absolute: to get these vital detection tools back online. Thanks to this swift agreement from the Council, we have delivered the responsible safety solution European citizens demanded,” said Zarzalejos.

“The EPP Group remains the driving force for security in Europe, and our determination has not wavered,” Zarzalejos added.

“This interim solution is a vital emergency measure to restore basic safety online, but it is only a temporary fix. Our focus now turns entirely to the permanent regulation. We will settle for nothing less than a robust, comprehensive, and long-term framework that leaves no blind spots for predators to exploit.”

Since the previous rules expired, EU tech platforms have been legally barred from voluntarily flagging child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The EPP says this created an unprecedented online blind spot, with as many as 55,000 reports of child abuse missed every single day.

Historically, up to 99% of reports of child abuse material have originated from voluntary searches by the platforms, and 4 out of 5 criminal investigations were triggered by those reports.